To Tame a Magus
by Bloble
Summary: She wanted a familiar. The universe listened, and searched through space and time for the one familiar most suited for Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Failing to find such a person, it settled for second best. Unfortunately, after summoning someone who is less than pleased with his new role in life, a familiar might be the last thing Louise the Zero needs.
1. Chapter 1: A Rough Landing

The monster's body was intricate, standing several stories tall and dozens of meters wide. In terms of sheer size it eclipsed most houses easily, rivaling even a mansion in size. Scaled tendrils extended from a central body, reaching out to catch and devour prey. The creature would strike fear and more into the hearts of any who looked at it. It was a one of a kind being of pure destruction and hatred that could only appear once every thousand years.

A girl with short blond hair and pointed ears knocked on one of the tendrils with her knuckles and felt only solid stone. The monster was merely a statue. She frowned.

"Are you sure it's dead?" she asked. "This thing looks untouched, even after all those cuts I gave it. And I don't really trust your spells to take down something this big without blowing it to pieces."

"It's dead," her slightly shorter companion chirped happily. "Or close enough to dead that it doesn't matter. I'm not really sure about how it works, but it won't be able to wake from that state on its own." The man, who could easily be mistaken for a boy if not for his faded white hair and dark robes, was overwhelmingly cheerful, and thus also the complete opposite of his companion.

"On its own?" The girl narrowed her eyes and drew a polished sword from the scabbard at her back. "If there's someone who can revive this monster and bend it to their will, we should just end it here and now."

"Relax, Sasha! You're being too serious," the young looking man said. "You'd need a wizard of my calibre to at least attempt such a thing, and those simply don't exist!"

"The elves might have one," Sasha retorted, but sheathed her sword again. "In fact, I'd go so far as to say they definitely have a few people who can match you."

"Hm, that's worrisome indeed," the man admitted. He drew his long robe around himself and smiled again. "But that's why I have you to protect me, my familiar!"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry, sorry!" The man's eyes suddenly became serious. "But really, it coming back to life is impossible. What I'm more worried about is where this thing came from. I've never seen nor read about anything like it. According to the survivors from the village, it suddenly appeared out of nowhere. If there are more like it…"

"Three villages," Sasha said after a moment of silence. "It took out anything that stood in its way, be it elf or man. Their weapons bounced off its skin and it ripped through the strongest magic with ease. How many Explosions did you give it?"

"A half dozen," the man admitted. "I probably could have destroyed it though. Eventually."

"You don't sound very sure." Sasha smiled suddenly. "Is this big bad Brimir afraid he's losing his touch? Maybe you should retire already and spend the rest of your life reading books or something."

"Nope! Not while the human race is being threatened. I still have plenty of work to do."

"Like getting rid of this thing, for example?" Sasha whacked one of the stone tendrils with her sheathed sword, and Brimir winced. "You can't just leave it like this. It's in the middle of a village for crying out loud! Just blow it up so we can haul the pieces off to some ditch."

"An elven village." Brimir said. "And no, I'm not breaking it. It- no, she's still alive."

"It's a girl now!? Come on, what's with you? This thing mercilessly slaughters anything it meets and you want to give it mercy, but you're planning out on wiping out my people completely? That's hypocritical, no matter which way you put it."

Brimir sighed. "Sasha, please. We can talk about the… elf thing later. For now, this thing is what we should be worried about. And in this state, she's harmless. I felt some of her thoughts as we fought. Suddenly thrust into a strange world, forced to feed on humans just so she could survive past a few seconds… she's someone to be pitied, not hated."

"So you want to spare her? So that one day she can wake up and kill more people again? This is a monster, Brimir! Worse than any dragon or other creature I've met! I doubt even Vindalfr could tame it." Sasha unsheathed her sword and climbed onto one of the tentacles. "I'm sticking my sword in its eye, and that's final."

"I'll seal it."

"Hm?" Sasha paused.

"I'll seal it," the boy repeated. "So that no one can touch it. It's not a monster, just a statue that's unbreakable and unmovable. Nothing will even disturb it, unless it's powerful enough to break through my magic."

"…so you'll damn it to an eternity of torture?"

Brimir smiled again. "Not torture. Sleep. The rest that she deserves. And if it ever wakes, it shall only do so to aid others, not destroy them. For that, you have my promise."

Sasha paused. She cursed, then cursed once more, but she also came down from the statue's tendrils. "You're an idiot," she said. "One day, you'll realize just how much those thoughtless actions of yours have screwed up the world. But until then, I suppose I'll have to keep following you to make sure you don't do something even more stupid than usual."

"Love you too, Gandalfr."

"Shut up."

Sasha watched as Brimir chanted a sealing spell, and sighed once more. It was a familiar feeling, that annoyance. Accepting that wizard's pact had been the worst decision she'd ever made. He was the kind of person who would commit genocide just to save his people, but refuse to destroy a monster that had slaughtered hundreds.

"Done!" he chirped, then did a little dance to celebrate.

Sometimes Sasha had a hard time believing the tiny man had managed to father three children, master magic beyond mankind's wildest dreams, and wipe several armies off the face of the earth.

As the two companions walked away from the ruined village and the statue that stood there as the final testament to the destruction it had caused, only Sasha looked back. Her hand went to her blade, which trembled in her grasp, but she let go of it quickly before it could do anything. She glared at the one eyed monster and restrained her urge to kill it again, before turning and following Brimir.

As they walked, Brimir's smile slowly became a frown.

"Sasha?" Suddenly, he spoke.

"Hm?"

"Have you ever heard of something called a Holy Grail?"

* * *

_More than six thousand years later…_

* * *

"Is it dead?"

In the centre of the clearing, the aftermath of an explosion resolved itself. A rather short girl stood in the middle of an expanding cloud of smoke, her heart sinking to her feet like a stone as she tried to deny the reality before her. Even as she tried to peer through the temporary fog, the buzz of whispers built up around her.

"She killed her familiar? The Zero?"

It was unmistakable. The smoke cleared away in mere seconds courtesy of a hasty wind spell, revealing the crime scene and the girl's miserable expression to the crowd, as well as the mutilated body that lay in the center of the blast's radius.

He was certainly a mess. The boy's strange uniform was all torn up and bloodied, and the girl noticed his right arm was definitely bending in the wrong direction. More importantly, though, he wasn't moving. Amidst the shrieks of several startled students, the tiny blonde standing before the dead body dropped to her knees, not comprehending what had just happened.

"Zero's a murderer!"

"I knew she'd snap eventually."

"She's started killing commoners… how barbaric."

Tears appeared at the corner of the girl's eyes, poised to fall. She opened her mouth, perhaps to defend herself, and then closed it again without saying a word. There was no way she could deny what she had done, even if she had no idea how. The Springtime Familiar summoning ritual wasn't supposed to give this kind of result!

"Miss Vallière…" As his words trailed off, a balding man in dark robes strode past his almost crying student. "Step back, please."

Vallière stood and took a few shaky steps back as her professor knelt by the boy and put an ear to his chest. The entire crowd went silent, even the variety of beasts and monsters floating around. One, a large dragon, seemed like it was about to squeak, before its Master, a petite blue haired girl, stopped it with a tap of her staff to its neck.

A full minute passed before the professor straightened and stood up.

"He's alive," he said with a frown on his face. "Barely, but alive. Miss Vallière, finish the contract and take him to the infirmary immediately."

"Huh?" The teary eyed girl looked up, not understanding his words.

"The contract, Miss Vallière. Finalize it so we can accept this boy as your familiar and treat him."

"What?" She blinked and rose to her feet, wobbling like a broken bobble head. "But he's a human! No one's ever contracted with a human before. And he looks like he'll die any second."

"So she's contracting with a half dead commoner?"

"He'll be a skeleton in a month!"

"Hey, skeletons are cool. Too cool for the Zero!"

"Quiet." The professor's voice was uncharacteristically hard compared to his usual demeanour, and the shock of hearing him talk that was enough to shut up the students, if only temporarily. "Miss Vallière, we don't have time to argue now. You summoned this boy for Springtime Familiar Summoning, so he's your familiar, dead or not. Now hurry up so we can get his wounds treated, unless you want his death on your conscience."

Vallière opened her mouth to reply, but after hearing a pained groan from the wounded boy, she closed her mouth again without complaint. Apparently debating something, she took a few tentative steps towards her familiar.

His eyes fluttered open as she knelt by his side and her gentle hands encircled his face.

Lilac. His eyes were lilac, like the flowers in her mother's garden. Eyes that stared into and through the girl's own. He looked almost peaceful, yet his pulse was weak and fluttered irregularly. He unconsciously opened his mouth and took a weak, rattling breath.

The girl decided.

She whispered: "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make him my familiar. Please."

The first thing the boy saw as he opened his eyes was the blurry face of the girl showing an expression of absolute despair as their bodies became closer and her lips touched his.

It was only a moment, but the kiss felt like it lasted an eternity.

An eternity long enough for the boy to recognize just a few things: that the girl kissing him was quite small, her eyes quite large, and that her hair was shining bright white thanks to the sun at her back. Oh, and the sudden burning pain in his body, concentrated in his left hand, that made getting pummeled to death seem like a good way to go.

He screamed.

Louise jumped backwards as the boy's howl startled (closer to terrified, really) her. She fell backwards, wincing as her derriere struck the blasted, barren ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!"

The circle of students recoiled at the noise, and it was instantly joined by shrieks and yells.

Despite his broken, burning body being particularly uncooperative, the boy somehow managed to get himself moving. He stumbled drunkenly, feeling as if he had simultaneously been burned, shot, mugged, and given a terrific beat down all at once.

The burning sensation faded after a moment, though, and with it the volume of his screams died down, until he collapsed and fell to his knees, supporting his broken body with his one good arm while keeping his broken one limp.

"W-what do you think you're doing, commoner?" Unlike the other students, Louise recovered almost instantly. "If you're well enough to be awake, then don't scare me like that!"

"Aaaaaah." The boy clenched his teeth and suppressed the pain in his limbs and arm. Even though he felt as if he'd been through a tornado, he forced himself to look up again, his eyes darting around, looking for the white haired girl and seeing only different coloured blurs.

"Vallière, give him some room to breathe." The balding professor said, but he was relaxed now that he could be sure the familiar wasn't on the brink of death. "He looks well enough, if a bit shaken. He's probably disoriented from the summoning. Oh, and congratulations on succeeding with 'Contract Servant' on your first try."

Louise nodded, biting back another biting remark. But just as she reasserted her self control, the students decided that there was no danger, and their bravery returned along with a bunch of crude remarks involving 'Zero', 'commoner', and several words too rude to list.

She ignored them, too focused on being annoyed at the bloody boy for stealing her first kiss like that. Or more accurately, forcing her to give it up. "I… don't suppose I can get another one, Professor Colbert?"

"Not unless he dies," the professor said. He looked at the kneeling boy. "But he'll live, so I'm afraid you're stuck with him for now. I do suggest you see to his wounds though, Miss Vallière."

"I will, I will." She bit back a retort and looked at her familiar once more. He was taller than her, definitely, but otherwise seemed like an ordinary commoner, although she had a hunch that his face would be fairly pretty without all the blood covering it. "Familiar!" she called out. "Your Master is over here. Come!"

The boy swiveled towards the source of noise and locked his eyes onto the pale haired girl. He took a few shaky steps forward, until he was standing only a few feet away, looking down at her tiny form.

"Alright, back to class, everyone. Miss Vallière, you are excused so you can take care of your familiar. Go ask a teacher to heal him. I'll handle the payment for the reagent since I was in charge of the summoning." Colbert spun in place and floated gently in the air, followed by the rest of the class. Students all rose, defying the laws of physics in the process. All save Louise, who stayed on the ground looking at her tattered familiar.

"Well? Are you going to say anything?" she asked, irritated now. On top of her messed up robes, she tasted blood as well, making her first kiss most unsatisfactory. "I hope you feel happy for successfully embarrassing me in front of the class. Not that it makes much of a difference."

"…"

"Nothing? Can you even speak, familiar? Or did that explosion rattle your mind, too?" Louise was tempted to simply blow up her familiar for disobeying her orders, but upon looking at its frankly pitiful form, she decided to stick to displaying her anger vocally until he- _it_ was healed. But after more silence, she began to get worried. "Um. Are you okay?"

"You." Suddenly, he spoke. Louise watched his face moved, like a car slowly starting up after years of disuse. He cycled through a myriad of expressions, and Louise was stuck watching him, strangely fascinated by the sight.

First there was fear, again. Merely an echo of the scream that had earlier sent him reeling, but it was still there. But why would he be afraid of her?

The fear was soon replaced by bewilderment. It was as if he had no idea what was going on. The boy frowned, evidently thinking very hard about something Louise couldn't quite pinpoint.

And then in quick succession, realization, anger, and finally a hint of glee. Somehow those emotions fit together, and seeing a twisted, maniacal grin suddenly appearing on her familiar's face gave Louise pause. Suddenly, the boy before her wasn't a half dead animal, but a wounded dog that could rip her throat out without provocation.

She took a step back, but the boy's good arm shot out, grabbing her shoulder. Louise raised her wand to scream and blow him away for touching her, but hesitated as she saw his wounds. No, any more punishment and he'd be killed.

"I'll kill you," he growled. His grin was gone, replaced by a mask of hatred. He was clearly furious, yet his voice was perfectly calm, almost unnaturally so. "You should have let me die. But now that your Servant is gone, there's nothing that can protect you. So I'll kill you, Illyasveil von Einzbern. I swear it. You will regret the day you let Matou Shinji live."

And with those words, the boy's sudden burst of strength disappeared. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he collapsed, falling like a puppet cut from its strings onto the grass.


	2. Chapter 2: The Rudest Awakening

After dragging the unconscious, possibly homicidal familiar she'd just summoned all that way back to the infirmary, Louise flagged down the nearest teacher with Colbert's request, and watched the woman do her work with a quick flourish. It was amazing how all you needed was some pine bark, ogre dung, and griffon feather to instantly heal a broken arm, and in any other situation Louise would've been thrilled and jealous that she couldn't do the same, but the commoner's parting words were still circulating within her head like annoying flies.

As it turned out, nature provided a perfect distraction for her after an hour of waiting and doing nothing, around the time the boy's wounds had fully healed and he'd passed into a peaceful sleep. Or at least peaceful for him. Unfortunately for Louise, he snored, and loudly at that. After half an hour of attempting to bear the ungodly noise like a proper noble, Louise had just about had enough. She was just reaching for the extra pillow when the boy's breathing changed, and he rose, abruptly rising as if he'd been poked with a needle.

The boy blinked, brushed a few bloody strands of navy hair out of his eyes, and looked out the nearby window. Almost immediately after he looked back and saw Louise, whereupon he cycled between a half dozen animated faces once more, this time settling for indignant bewilderment, a mirror of the girl's own expression.

"You're not that little girl," he said, as if proclaiming a vital piece of information.

"No, I'm not," Louise replied. She wanted to say a great many things, but too many of them involved yelling and explosions, so she settled for the simplest reply.

Shinji glanced around the room. "I'm not in Fuyuki anymore, am I?"

"You are in the Tristain Academy of Magic, commoner."

He paused, took a few seconds to think, and then nodded, apparently making a decision in his mind. "Get me the hell out of here. I want to go home."

Louise blinked. "This is your home, familiar. I summoned you, thus you are bound to me, and like me, you're stuck here until I graduate."

The boy responded this time with a blank stare, completely devoid of understanding. Louise sighed. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

He nodded, and Louise once more resisted the urge to blow up her idiotic familiar.

* * *

One long, arduous, and interruption filled explanation later, both parties had learned something. Shinji learned of Tristain, the Academy of Magic, and what the hell the Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual was. Louise, on the other hand, had learned something even more valuable.

Her familiar was more insufferable than Guiche la Gramont on a bad hair day.

"I'm telling you, there's no way to bring you back home!" she repeated angrily. "The summoning is one way only. If it's that much of a problem, then you can walk back!"

"Oh, so you'd summon a man right out of some important business, try to enslave him, and then demand he walk back without a penny to his name? Some kind of noble you are," the boy said, turning up his nose at Louise's diplomacy attempts. "This is ridiculous. First you insult me, then you expect me to serve you without reason, and now you're trying extortion? That's just pathetic."

"I'm not the one who showed up looking like a ragdoll!" Louise countered, her hand tightening around her wand. "And I'm warning you, familiar! Any more back talk and you're not getting any breakfast tomorrow!"

"Why should I care what you tell me? Last I checked, slavery's illegal! And even if I am a so called 'familiar', there's no way the great Shinji is going to listen to a half-pint like you!" The blue haired boy smirked, proud of his so called 'accomplishment' of swearing at a girl who looked like she was still in middle school. Not that he cared in the slightest. "Now let me out of here. I'm going home."

Louise stood up. Her eyes glowed with an eerie light, and Shinji clammed up when he saw her wand hand shaking. "Oh," she said numbly. "I see. It's my fault, then. Yes, this makes perfect sense."

"H-hey, calm down," Shinji said quickly, but the damage was done.

Louise raised her wand. "It is a master's responsibility to tame her pet. That you're so disobedient is my fault. It looks like I failed to teach you exactly why you'll listen to me, familiar."

"Wait, don't!"

"Fireball!"

The resulting explosion, which was most certainly not a fireball, ended up hospitalizing the boy again. Louise was forced to fetch the same teacher who'd healed him earlier, making up a story about how the healing hadn't stuck the first time. Luckily, the teacher obliged, although not without a few hesitant glances at the state of the room.

"This is illegal." The boy muttered later, sitting up in bed. His hair was singed and frazzled, but otherwise he was fine. At least, ignoring the two largely superfluous casts on his legs and the makeshift cane sitting by his bedside. "I'll have you sued."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Louise looked away, hiding her victorious grin. As petty and low as it had been, blowing up the boy felt good. "Besides, no one will take the word of a commoner over a noble. As one capable of practicing magic, it's obvious that I, as a noble, am innately more trustworthy than a shifty commoner like yourself. Now are you feeling more cooperative, familiar?" Still, she hesitated at the end. Perhaps she'd been laying it on a bit thick. Louise resolved to apologize as soon as Shinji stopped being so damn aggravating.

"…I'm not a commoner."

"Huh?"

"I'm not a commoner!" Suddenly, that anger was back. The same one he'd displayed when he threatened her life in the summoning field. Only this time she could detect actual pain. Emotional, not physical. "I'm the son of Matou Byakuya, scion of Makiri Zouken!" Shinji yelled. "I hail from the great line of the Makiri mages! We created the Command Spells, and helped establish the Holy Grail War! As the heir of this great Magus family, I demand your respect, whoever the hell you are, runt! So get it through your damn skull: Matou Shinji is no commoner!"

For a moment Louise was taken aback at Shinji's yell. For a moment.

"I've never heard of these… Matou." She said. "And you haven't performed any magic at all. If you're going to lie, then do it better, commoner."

"I don't have to prove myself to you," Shinji growled. "I'm from Japan, idiot."

"I've never heard of this Japan," Louise countered, but she hesitated. What if he really was a mage? If so, then calling a noble common was one of the greatest insults one could use.

"Then ask someone who knows what the hell he's talking about," Shinji, spotting Louise's indecision, pressed on. "Honestly, I can't believe I'd ever meet someone who doesn't even know basic geography, but it looks like I just have. There's got to be a head honcho here, right? Someone who's high up in the Association. Let me speak to them. I'll explain everything, and then be back home in no time. They'll have heard of Japan, at the very least."

Louise paused. She turned very red, and looked down. "Um," she began, and then shut her mouth again. She took a deep breath, looked up, and prepared to apologize, when-.

"Are you gonna get me out of this crappy bed or what? Geeze, it's like you people have no sense of respect." The boy flung away his sheets and brushed his blue hair out of his eyes again (just like Guiche). Instantly, any sympathy or regrets Louise had about blowing him up vanished.

"Fine!" she all but yelled. "I'll get you an audience with Sir Osmond! Now will you please just shut the hell up before I blow you to smithereens again!?"

Surprisingly, the boy listened. Perhaps there was something to be said for the threat of broken legs as motivation.

* * *

Shinji limped in front of the office after Louise. His legs hurt, but he'd gotten used to the pain after being forced to climb several long staircases that way (of course the office was on the top floor of the tallest tower). It still did nothing for the fact that he walked like a drunk penguin, but he just reassured himself that when the casts were off in a day and he could run again, the first thing he'd do would be too horrible to write down.

It was weird, though, that he'd had to walk. He spotted several students floating by while he and Louise trudged along. He had made to ask the short girl why she wasn't simply flying him there, but kept his mouth shut, figuring it was simply part of the tyrannical girl's 'punishment'.

"Excuse me, could we please see Sir Osmond?" Louise asked as she knocked on the door, for once polite instead of scathing. "It's important."

"Come in." A female voice came from inside, sounding rather stressed. As Louise opened the door, she spotted a pretty secretary with a rather crumpled robe straightening her hair, while the old, white haired and bearded old Headmaster of the academy sat at his desk. He would've looked rather respectable if it wasn't for the sizeable bump on his head and the imprint of a palm on the right side of his face.

"You've caught me at a rare moment of free time, Miss Vallière." He said weakly. "Normally you need an appointment for this sort of thing, though."

"I judged that you'd be better off spending your free time actually attending to your students rather than attempting to grope me, Sir, and so I let them in without one," the secretary said, and Osmond shrunk back into his chair.

"Erm, yes, well, let's get on with it." Osmond had the decency to at least look a bit bashful. "Wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting. What do you need, Miss Vallière?"

"My apologies for the interruption, Sir." Louise tried to do a curtsy, then realized she couldn't remember how and decided not to bother. "Well, it's about my familiar. If you're not already aware-."

"I know of your unusual summoning, yes," Osmond said. "Word has spread quickly around the school even though it hasn't even been a day yet. Ever the explosive one, aren't you, Miss Vallière?"

Louise blushed, and soldiered on. "Well, although we thought him a commoner from his manner of dress, my familiar claims that he is in fact a noble."

"Hm… this is a serious claim, boy," Osmond said, looking at Shinji for the first time with a poker face perfected over dozens of years. "Oh, what is your name, by the way?"

"Shinji. Matou Shinji," the boy snapped. He straightened, wincing as he put all his weight on his still slightly injured legs, and did his best to keep his voice as arrogant as possible. "I am a magus-."

Suddenly, Louise yanked him down by his tattered shirt. "You idiot!" she hissed into his ear. "This is Headmaster Osmond you're speaking to! A little respect could mean the difference between life and death!" Despite the meeting being her idea, she was nervous at the prospect of what Osmond could say. Would he punish her? Kick her out for summoning a noble familiar? She had no idea. Even if the Headmaster was normally kind and forgiving, this was a situation no one had ever seen before.

"Now now, there's no need to get those lacy panties of yours in a bunch, Miss Vallière," Osmond said with a chuckle. "And do refrain from scaring the boy with hearsay. Judging from his name, Mr. Shinji isn't from around here, and likely has no idea who this old coot is and why he should be polite to him. Isn't that right, boy?"

Shinji harrumphed. "I've just been blown up twice by this girl, and brought to near death both times. Excuse me if I'm not in the best of moods," he said, loudly and dramatically, shooting an accusatory glance at Louise, who squeezed her wand tight enough to crack it as she tried to hold back her anger in front of the Headmaster. "And to think, she's never even heard of Japan! What do you teach your students here?"

"We teach them how to be nobles, boy," Osmand said, his voice softening the slightest bit. He lifted a bushy eyebrow and glanced at Shinji, paralyzing the boy instantly. It wasn't magic, just the force of that single glance. "And nobles must have a noble bearing at all times. Even Miss Vallière, though she's had some problems along the way, has that. You, however, don't. Not very wizardly of you, is it?"

He abruptly turned to Louise, all smiles once more. "Miss Vallière, please wait outside the office for a few minutes. I have something to discuss with your familiar. And yes, he is still your familiar, regardless of whether or not he's a mage. Those runes on his hands do not lie. Thus, you are still to continue treating him like your familiar. Miss Longueville, please show the girl out and keep her company for a while."

Both the girl and the lady nodded abruptly, slightly rattled by Osmand's temporary shift in personality, and scurried out of the office as fast as they could without letting it slip that they were frightened. The secretary, however, still possessed enough discipline to subtly kick the mouse scurrying under her robes, sending it flying into a bookshelf with a pained squeak.

Osmond winced as the door closed. "Well, black is a daring colour, but I'd say it suits Miss Longueville." The mouse recovered instantly and scurried up his arm, settling on the old wizard's shoulder. "Now for you, Matou Shinji. Where did you say you were from?"

"J-Japan," Shinji said, finally getting the hint that his usual attitude would only cause him harm.

"Hm." Osmond stroked his beard. After a minute, he sighed. "Normally I would punish you for lying and claiming to be a noble. It would be lenient of me. People have been executed for less. But Japan, well, I recognize that word, and those eyes of yours are of a strange shape. The land in the East, was it? You've come a long way, boy."

"Y-yes, sir." Too aware of the dangers of his situation, Shinji was reduced to the simplest of answers.

"I have only once before met a magus who mentioned Japan," Osmond said, stroking his beard some more. His mouse familiar chattered in the old man's ear, and he nodded along as if able to understand it. "I was wandering, over thirty years ago, in the woods, when I was attacked by a fearsome dragon. It caught me by surprise and proved itself my match. I would possibly have died there if that man hadn't shown up. He blew away the dragon with what we now call a Staff of Destruction. It was a fearsome weapon indeed. But he was gravely wounded, and after saving my life he lived only a short time before dying despite all our healing attempts. I have his other Staff of Destruction here at the school as a memento."

"I recall his words vividly to this day. He spoke of how his wife's panties were always a different colour every day… eh, what was that, I'm getting it mixed up?" The mouse squeaked some more, and Osmond nodded. "Oh, my mistake. Yes, he spoke of many things. Of wars and loved ones and places no one had ever heard of. America was one he mentioned quite a bit, followed by Vietnam. He also mentioned having once fought against a country called Japan on large metal vessels and in the densest jungle climates. He died soon after."

Osmond straightened his back and looked Shinji in the eyes once more. "So, as ridiculous as your claim may be, you are the only person who has even mentioned the word Japan to me in thirty years. So I'll believe you for now."

Shinji let out a nervous sigh of relief, even as the gears in his head turned, processing what Osmond had said and coming to a slow burning realization.

"In any case, I shall ask Mr. Colbert to fetch some geography books from the library and see if we can locate this 'Japan' of yours," Osmond said. "When we do, I'll see what I can do about getting you back there. For now, however, you'll have to stay here as Miss Vallière's familiar while I think of how to handle the situation."

"What!?" Shinji protested. "But she's already come close to killing me! You can't force me to serve her! That's slavery!"

"Your needs will be met, and you will be given food and shelter," the Headmaster said, his eyes turning hard again. "If you don't want to be my student's familiar, then I have no reason to keep you here. If you like, you could go to the nearby town and fend for yourself, but I don't think you'll have much luck as an illegal guest in Tristain. Just bear with it for a few days, Shinji."

Shinji ground his teeth, torn between anger and self control. He was about to yell when the slow burning realization in the back of his mind made itself known. He froze, about to scream a denial, when his eyes widened and his words failed him. After a minute, he nodded. "Fine. A few days won't kill me, I guess."

"Excellent!" Osmond said, happy again. "Now all that's left is to prove you're a noble and you're all set to go."

"Huh?" Shinji blinked. "Prove I'm a noble?"

"Just a small bit of magic." Osmond explained. "I'll accept that you're from Japan, but I'd like to see some of this magic of yours. It won't be a problem, will it?"

"M-magic?" Shinji swallowed nervously. "Uh, well, I'm tired, see, and Japanese magic works differently from yours!"

"Come now, there's no need to be shy!" Osmond laughed. "I promise I won't reveal the secrets of your power. But an old man like I can be curious, yes? Just a flourish, to prove your words. It shouldn't be much of a problem, yes?" The promise behind his words was clear.

Shinji nodded weakly as he stuck his hands in his pocket, searching for something, anything that might help. A flashlight? A lighter perhaps? There had to be something he could use to fool the old man, something the technology dumb people of this world would mistake for genuine magecraft.

And then his fingers closed around a charred object he had thought was destroyed. Hoping, praying that his idea would work, Shinji imagined himself drawing from power he didn't have, glared at Osmond's frail neck, and willed it to split open.

* * *

The door slammed open, causing both Louise and Longueville to jump in shock. Shinji stormed out of Osmond's office, looking as if he'd just been rejected by Tohsaka Rin again.

"Are you done, familiar?" Louise asked, summoning up her prideful tone once more.

"Yeah," the boy growled. "Finished. We can go now, 'Master'." He spat the word as if it burned him just to say it. "I'll be your familiar until that old coot you call Headmaster can find a way to fix this mess. Just don't expect me to act like one."

"We'll see," was all Louise said before turning on her heel. "Come, familiar," she ordered, and marched down the stairs, not slowing down even for her cast bearing familiar. If he wanted to play that game, she thought, then he'd have to learn the hard way that she'd been playing it all her life.


	3. Chapter 3: A Noble's Prerogative

The panties were very frilly, the boy observed. They were lacy as well, and all sorts of dainty, feminine words that could conceivably be used to describe women's underwear. On top of that, they were pure white, culminating in a pair of underwear that only a spoiled, rich virgin would ever consider wearing.

Shinji looked up. "What am I supposed to do with these?"

"Wash them," Louise said, and threw her recently removed night robe to the side, then started walking to her dresser to retrieve more clothes to alleviate her current condition of nakedness.

Standing in the middle of the room, witness to the entire scene, was Shinji, holding a pair of girl's underwear (not an uncommon situation) and completely speechless (definitely a first).

"Wash the rest of my clothes, too," his temporary Master said, pointing to a pile of clothes next to Shinji's now un-broken legs. "I'd ask you to do it yourself, but since you're supposedly some kind of foreign noble, you can get one of the servants to do it for you," she said, making it clear she trusted Shinji about as far as her tiny arms could throw him.

"Fair enough, Miss Vallière, or should I call you Dictator?" said Shinji, responding with just as much malice. "I suppose I'll be the better person and humour those childish requests of yours." It was a day since they'd first met, but the instant dislike between the two had already blossomed into enmity, helped along by their precarious situation, and both had reason to be angry at the other. The boy gathered up Louise's discarded clothes and stomped out the door as fast as his wrapped up legs would allow, secretly glad for the excuse to leave.

It only took a minute of mindless wandering through identical stone halls for Shinji to run into someone who could help him, in a very literal sense. There was a sudden collision as he turned a corner, clothes falling gently through the air, and a high pitched shriek. Oh, and he landed on his ass, which hurt, a pain that Shinji loudly and vocally expressed by swearing at not quite the top of his lungs, but fairly close to that threshold.

"Oh my!" came a startled voice, the owner of which Shinji couldn't see through the familiar panties draped over his eyes. He snarled and all but ripped the fabric from his face, unleashing the full force of his glare onto the cute maid he'd inadvertently crashed into. She blinked, but was apparently made of sterner stuff than Shinji would've expected, as instead of bursting into tears or weeping for her life, she merely curtseyed and extended a hand towards Shinji, all while directing her gaze towards the floor. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you there."

"Well you bloody well should have," growled Shinji as he took her hand and stumbled to his feet again. "Dammit, now I have to gather all of his garbage up again."

"Garbage, what do you- oh." The maid blushed as she saw the frilly lace clutched tightly in Shinji's hand. "Um, I don't think your girlfriend will be very please if her underwear gets damaged," she finally said.

"Not my girlfriend," said Shinji as he leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "More like a slave driver. I have no idea how that girl's managed to survive this long with an attitude like that. I've seen people willing to murder for less than what she's done."

"Oh my," the maid repeated, blushing at Shinji's words. "Um, is that why you've got those clothes?"

"What, this stuff?" Shinji looked at the panties in his hand and forced it to unclench. Then he suddenly blinked and looked at the maid again, switching between her and the panties half a dozen times before his scowl suddenly became a satisfied grin. "Oh, this? Nah, I'm just going to find someone to wash it for me because she's too high and mighty to do it herself."

The maid tilted her head, her blush deepening. "So your noble mistress has sent you to do her laundry after warming her bed… oh, you poor thing!" Suddenly, Shinji was subjected to a look he'd only seen every single day of his life, one that had prompted the most unspeakable hatred to surface within his heart. It was the one thing he never wished to see.

Pity.

"Don't," he growled, all traces of his smile gone. He raised his free arm, and only caught himself just in time to realize that it was clenched into a fist, and the maid was scared again. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. It was someone else. Not her. Never her. This was completely different. She wasn't looking down on him, just misunderstanding.

"Look, you work here, right?" The maid responded with a nervous nod. "Then here, take care of this." Shinji tossed the panties at the maid without a second thought. "The rest of it, too. Have them cleaned and brought to, uh, Louise… something Vallière's room."

"But aren't a noble's personal servants supposed to handle something like this?" she asked, her voice shaky. "If Miss Vallière asked you, then shouldn't you be washing them personally? I mean, I can still help you wash them and show you where if you're new here, but-." She was interrupted by a loud and dramatic sigh from Shinji, followed by an exasperated shrug.

"Girl, I think you're misunderstanding something quite serious," the boy said, smiling once more in a way that sent shivers down the maid's spine. "Listen up, lady-." He paused. "Actually, what's your name?"

"S-Siesta."

"Right, Siesta." Shinji continued without skipping a beat. "You seem to be under the impression that I'm some kind of servant of this Vallière girl, but I am no such thing. In fact," he paused once more to chuckle, "I am a noble myself. Matou Shinji, heir to the Matou family is the name of the man whose honour you have slighted by deigning to compare him to a lowly commoner such as yourself. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Ah, um." It seemed that Shinji's impromptu speech had completely broken Siesta. She trembled as if she would fall apart could break with a single touch. But the strength of Tristain's commoners wasn't to be underestimated. "Well, uh, I am very sorry, Mr. Noble?"

"Why was that a question?"

"Eh?"

Shinji smirked, in the zone now. "I said: Why was that a question? Don't pretend it wasn't! I could hear the question mark in your voice! Are you unsure about your supposedly sincere apology to me? Is this what the commoners of this country are like? Should I be reporting this to the headmaster, girl? Perhaps I will tell him his secretary needs an assistant, and he'll be so overjoyed to have another pair of panties to peek at that he'll grant me a great favour!"

"N-no, I'm very sorry for offending your honour! Really!"

"Hehehe." Upon seeing the maid finally close to tears, Shinji felt the satisfaction of being cruel to someone weaker than him. Perhaps this new world wouldn't be so bad after all.

Just as those cruel thoughts betrayed his true self, a bored voice came from around the corner. "Maid, you may go. I'll handle this idiot myself."

"Huh?" Thoroughly confused and reduced to one word sentences at this point, Siesta looked to her savior. Her short, irritated, blond, improperly dressed savior.

Louise glared at Shinji with all the force a sleepy person could muster. "Hey, familiar. No bullying the maids. They work for the academy, not for you."

"Tch. No one asked you to butt in," Shinji said, annoyed. He turned to face Louise, leaving Siesta ignored, to the side. "What's the problem? She's a commoner, isn't she? I thought you nobles did stuff like this all the time."

"Only the exceptionally cruel ones," said Louise. "I don't know how they do it in this Japan of yours, but here we are expected to show even commoners the respect they deserve. The headmaster doesn't look favorably upon those who mistreat the commoners that work hard to cook and clean for us, and I certainly don't appreciate my familiar behaving like a spoiled kid. We have more than enough of those already without you adding to the pool."

"Hah! Says the girl who can't even put on her clothes by herself! What are you, ten? I'm only your familiar because of these stupid runes on my hand, and the fact that you failed a summoning spell so hard you pulled a guy from… the other… side of… the world." Abruptly, Shinji stopped. He looked at the familiar runes on his hand, and back at Louise for a moment. Then he shook his head. "Nah, must've just been a coincidence. You? True Magic? Not a chance."

With those mysterious words, he stormed down the halls in a random direction.

Louise ran off to follow him and toss various insults his way, pausing only to reassure Siesta that she didn't have to lift a single finger to help out the noble girl's idiotic familiar. Siesta stood in place for a whole minute, not really understanding what had just happened but knowing she'd been saved by the Zero. Then she mechanically knelt down and gathered up the clothes that had scattered everywhere, promising to wash them herself as thanks.

* * *

Shinji let out a sigh as he turned a corner and found himself alone. It had been a tense few minutes of running awkwardly from a girl at least a few years younger than him. Normally her tiny body wouldn't have been able to keep up, but with the annoying casts around his legs, Shinji had been reduced to a weak hobble that gave him barely enough speed to stay away from her. But it seemed that Louise had given up, whether from tiredness or fear of being seen in an advanced state of undress he wasn't sure.

"Idiot. If she wanted to catch me, all she had to do was fly like the rest of the students."

Shinji leaned against a wall, catching his breath. He looked at the casts on his legs, and frowned. He spent the next few minutes trying to get them off, but whoever had made them seemed to have enchanted them as well, and bashing them against the stone wall only hurt his legs.

However, the noise made from the impact of enchanted material on stone did manage to draw the attention of a passing student.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the blond haired boy asked. "That inelegant sound chased Katie away." He seemed rather annoyed, and was in the process of buttoning up his rather frilly shirt.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Shinji asked sarcastically. "I'm trying to get these stupid things off!" He aimed a vicious kick towards the wall, and while he swore in pain from the impact, the white cast on his foot was unscratched.

The boy raised an eyebrow. "That won't work, you know. The healer does that to every cast she makes. The spell will wear off in a week or two, though."

"Hah! I'm not waiting a week for these things to come off! My legs are just fine!" But Shinji stopped kicking the wall and faced the new arrival. "Who are you, anyway?"

The boy sniffed. "I am Guiche de Gramont, commoner." He said proudly. "And what makes you think you can address me with such a tone?"

"Matou. Shinji. Not. A. Commoner." Shinji huffed and puffed, too tired to give a witty comeback. "Dammit. You're the third one to make that mistake."

"Oh, sorry." Guiche said, although he didn't sound very sorry, or interested for that matter. "It's probably the messed up clothes," he offered. "I've never seen a noble dressed in something like that. You'd need a cape, at least, or maybe a few gold frills here or there if you wanted to be recognized as a noble." Both items that he had in abundance, possibly even excess.

"I'm from Japan. Nobles dress differently there," said Shinji, offering up a weak excuse.

"Ah, right, Japan." Guiche nodded even though he'd never heard of the place, and then paused as a thought made itself known in the back of his rarely used brain. "Wait a second. I recognize you. You're the half dead guy the Zero summoned! You're her familiar!"

"Only for as long as it takes me to figure out how to get rid of these runes," Shinji said bitterly. "Dammit, it's like I have the worst luck in the world. First I almost get killed by a little girl, and now I'm enslaved to one."

"Haha!" Guiche, on the other hand, seemed to find the situation hilarious. "Of course! The Zero can't even do a summoning right! It's a shame that you should be subject to her whims, but look on the bright side! Although she is yet to spread her petals, Vallière will surely blossom into a beautiful rose one day. Maybe. Well, there's a chance at least."

"A rose with more thorns than petals, and more bark than breasts," Shinji grumbled. "What is with that girl anyway? She tried to get me to sleep in a pile of hay last night, of all things!"

"Well, she is a temperamental one, but most noble women are like that to a certain extent, even my beloved Montmorency." Guiche offered. "It is part of their charm, don't you agree?"

"Montmorency? Didn't you mention a girl called Katie, earlier?"

Guiche laughed nervously. "W-Well, um, I am a rose, you see, and, well…"

"A rose exists to be seen by everyone, right?" Shinji finished the other boy's sentence for him with a grin. "Which means that you aren't doing anything wrong at all."

"Exactly!" Guiche nodded, smiling as well. "So you too understand! You are indeed a noble, my friend! Come, it is almost time for breakfast. Would you like to join me?"

"Eh, sure," said Shinji. He didn't really care about this foppish kid, but if it helped him become well known among the rest of the students as a noble, then he would suffer through a few minutes of listening to the other boy's prattle about roses. "But you're right, I don't think my current clothing is very… noble, and I don't really have anything else to wear yet."

"I'll lend you one of my spare uniforms," Guiche said. "But you'll have to be quick about it. I promised Katie that I'd finish our talk in the dining hall. You don't really need those casts, do you?"

"No, my legs are fine. The teacher probably left them on by mistake."

"Excellent." With a twitch of Guiche's wand he cast his magic, the stone casts cracked and fell to pieces. "As an Earth mage, unraveling a charm like that is a simple task for me." He explained as Shinji tested out his freshly freed legs. "My father told me once that most healers are Water mages, so their Earth spells aren't usually very strong. No need to thank me, by the way."

"Yes," Shinji said and smiled through gritted teeth. "No need at all."

* * *

Louise was having a bad day.

Well, more of a bad week, really, but the last twenty four hours had been a sharp plunge from ordinary misery to the very depths of teeth-grinding agony. First she'd almost killed her newly summoned familiar several times, then that familiar had decided it didn't want to be a griffin or dragon or other interesting monster, but a supposedly Japanese 'noble' who was somehow worse than the childish students who teased Louise on a daily basis. And he wouldn't even listen to her, forcing her to dress herself, something almost unheard of. By the end of the night, she'd begun to wish she _had_ killed him. At least then she'd be allowed to try summoning something slightly less annoying.

A lesser student would've cried, or screamed, or written a hasty letter to their rich Mother or Father pleading for help. But not Louise. Oh no, those of the Valliere family did not bend so easily to pressure.

Louise marched into the dining room full of students, this time properly dressed, and instantly spotted Shinji chatting with Guiche – of course it would be Guiche – and his group of friends. The boys were laughing in unison, with the blonde one looking at her familiar with something approaching respect.

Guiche, the most arrogant young Casanova in the entire school, respecting another male? Guiche speaking to someone who wasn't a cute girl or one of his lackeys? Guiche lending another person his clothes, willingly!? It could only mean one thing, and as she realized what had happened, Louise's bad day became even worse.

Her familiar had made friends.

Still, something like that wasn't enough to stop a Valliere!

"Familiar," she said after marching to Shinji's table. "Your master has arrived. Attend to me."

"Eh?" Shinji stopped laughing and frowned. "Oh, it's you. C'mon, are you seriously going to try that? I already proved to that old fart that I'm not a commoner, but you're still trying to order me around? I knew you were weird but this is too much."

"Valliere, I am surprised to see you here," said Guiche, more diplomatically, although Louise still noticed him trying to keep his expression straight. "I must say, I take back my remarks earlier. Your familiar is an interesting rose indeed. Although certainly not the kind I tend to admire!" he hastily added a second later. "In any case, attempting to order a fellow noble without a difference in rank is, well, problematic, as you likely know. I'd suggest you reconsider your words."

"Noble or not, he's still my familiar," she insisted as heads began to turn all around the hall. "And a familiar has to obey its master. And right now, this familiar's master wants it not to eat with a bad influence like you, Gramont. If he hangs out with you, he'll be talking about nothing but roses by the end of the day and stringing girls along like it's some kind of game."

"I'm offended!" said Guiche. "I take matters of love even more seriously than the fiery Zerbst!"

"Seriously enough that you can't hold onto a girl for more than a week." Louise snapped. Something within her had broken. Her fragile, weak self control failed under the onslaught of the two most irritating men she knew. "Who's your lover this time, Guiche? Who are you going out with now?"

"I do not 'go out'," said Guiche,. "A rose blooms for the pleasure of many! For me to deprive the beautiful girls of this academy of my love would be unforgivable! Isn't that right, friend?" Although his words were embarrassingly honest, Louise noticed that he had lowered the volume of his voice so that only those nearby could hear.

"Well, you heard him," Shinji said, shrugging. "You can't really argue with that, unless you'd like to vie for his love as well. I'm sure a few lessons on how to handle a man wouldn't be wasted on you."

An angry blush colouring her cheeks betrayed Louise's anger as she all too calmly replied. "I honestly don't care about your hobbies, Guiche, but I'm not having my familiar be part of it. In any case, even though you're supposedly dating that first year girl, don't you smell a bit too much like Montmorency's perfume? The Flood must be very accepting of your new lover if she's still letting you wear her scent." She punctuated her words by letting a half full bottle of purple liquid roll onto the table.

A hundred pairs of eyes followed the evidence as it slowly rolled to a stop next to Guiche's manicured fingers. Almost in unison, every student in the suddenly quiet dining hall looked blankly at the boy.

All save one, a short, brown haired first year that abruptly stood up with tears in the corner of her eyes.

"Guiche…" Katie sniffed, and then started crying. "You and Miss Montmorency… I knew it!"

"Wait, no!" Guiche sputtered. "Katie, the only one in my heart is you!"

But his words didn't stop the girl from giving him a hard slap to the face.

As he reeled from the shock, another girl stood, this time one with rolled up blonde hair.

"So, you've been going out with that first year, Guiche?" she said.

"Lies!" Guiche said. "I merely accompanied her on a trip to the forest one or twice. Or thrice."

"Oh yes," said Montmorency. "But 'the only one in my heart is you', right? Save it, Guiche! We're over!" With that said, the regal girl slapped Guiche and grabbed the crying Katie by the hand and dragged her out of the hall, either to slap or console the younger girl.

"But, but I!" Guiche froze with two reddening hand prints on both cheeks.

"Ah, that sucks, really," said Shinji, looking as relaxed as ever. "But take it as a lesson. Scheduling conflicts like this are unavoidable if you don't take precautions against them. Next time try telling your girls that your relationship must be kept secret for some reason. Works like a charm, and they'll think it's romantic to boot."

"My my, what have we here? The new boy giving relationship advice to Guiche? And here I thought I'd seen it all." A new voice interrupted Shinji's impromptu lecture. A girl with flaming red hair entered the hall, followed by a shorter, blue haired girl with her nose buried in a book. "What's wrong, Gramont? Did you lie about your flaming passion to those two outside? I'd be careful if I were you. They look like they're planning a gruesome revenge."

"It's none of your concern, Zerbst!" Both Louise and Guiche's retorts came out simultaneously, and the red girl only laughed as they proceeded to glare at each other.

"Ridiculous. Aren't all matters of passion my business? I, Kirche the Ardent, won't be left out of this! Isn't that right, Tabitha?" But the blue haired girl had already gone ahead without even raising her head from her book. "Ah, wait up, Tabitha!"

And thus, Kirche's short foray into the situation ended as abruptly as it had begun.

"Dammit, don't just butt in and leave like that, Kirche!" Louise was even angrier now, but Guiche had calmed down.

"Ah, that girl is as flighty as a rose. Wait, no, that doesn't make much sense. Wait, how about: She's as flighty as a rose, opening and closing her petals for blissfully short periods of time! Well, it needs work, but it'll do." Despite the two slap marks on his face, his composure had returned.

"Who was that?" asked Shinji. "She looked pretty, uh, wholesome."

"Indeed, but I wouldn't try it if I were you," said Guiche, rubbing his stinging cheeks. "Kirche the Ardent's passions are powerful, but even I've had no luck capturing her. She prefers her boys docile and easy to control."

"Tch. You give up too easily. I could have every girl in this academy under my thumb in a week."

"Don't talk like I'm not here, familiar!" Louise said angrily.

"Eh? You're still here?" Shinji turned to her with a bored expression. "What do you want? I'm not going to listen to you, so you might as well quit trying to order me around. Unlike this guy, I haven't been here long enough to accrue any juicy secrets, so blackmail isn't going to work. I'd suggest going and eating with your friends, if you even have any."

"Unacceptable. You're my familiar."

Shinji laughed. "In name only. As soon as that headmaster of yours figures out a way to get rid of these runes without killing me, I'm gone. Besides, what are you gonna do about my insubordination? Report it to the old man and have him do all your work for you?"

Louise said nothing.

"Well?" Shinji pressed on, oblivious to the fact that Guiche and his friends were slowly distancing themselves, looks of apprehension on their faces. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Louise still said nothing, but the anger on her face had faded.

"Hey, Shinji, maybe you should stop," Guiche whispered to the boy, clearly afraid. "The Zero can be volatile when angry."

"Don't be ridiculous," the other boy replied, completely at ease in an environment that was totally new, yet too familiar to his own high school classroom. "You guys told me she's a complete mess when it comes to magic. Hell, if you think about it, shouldn't our positions be reversed?"

He grinned. "Why don't you trying being a commoner and calling me Master, Louise the Zero?"

He had expected something. An explosion, perhaps, but hopefully not. A slap, maybe. From a dainty girl like her, it wouldn't hurt at all. Most likely would be tears, or more yelling, which would be easy to deal with.

What Shinji had not expected was for a small patch of leather to smack into his face like a wet paper towel.

"Huh?" He peeled off the article from his face and stared at it, taking a moment to realize what it was. A single, dainty glove that looked like something a lady would wear.

"Fine." He heard Louise speak. "If that's how you want it, then fine."

"What are you talking about?" Shinji asked, bewildered by her curt response. "What was that?"

Louise only glared.

"Tonight, at Vestri Court," she said. "If you win, I'll call you Master just like you wanted. If I win though, I'll teach you what being the Familiar of a Zero really means."


	4. Chapter 4: Children's Quarrels

The court was silent.

The voices of several dozen students were muffled as the crowd situated their focus on the two others in the middle of the large circle. The once bright grass of Vestry Court had been trampled and ruined within a matter of minutes, and once the gardener arrived the next day he would cry over all of the delicate flowers the ignorant students had ruined in their mad rush to see a genuine duel. The court had been turned from a garden for quiet walks and romantic escapes to an arena where the masses would watch two hardened warriors duel to the death.

Or in this case, a pair of squabbling students having what would no doubt amount to a children's play fight.

The first combatant was the least likely person to ever step into an actual battle. Topping out at more than a few inches short of average, Louise looked more like an irritated child than a wizard, although both applied to her equally. She clutched her wand in her hand with enough strength to snap a rodent's neck, however, and her hardened expression was certainly that of a combatant ready to exact punishment upon her opponent.

The same could not be said for the boy across from her. Shinji stood uncomfortably in a much too frilly shirt and borrowed cape, with a bronze sword in a hastily carved sheath hanging off his belt to give him a semblance of superiority. It was blunted and couldn't cut, but against a girl with nothing in the way of armour, it would be more than enough. He was at least more prepared for the duel than Louise, but his face was unabashedly nervous, and he lacked the noble composure of the girl across from him.

A bead of sweat ran down his forehead, but Shinji paid it no mind. He was too busy recalling the events that had led up to him being put in such an uncomfortable situation.

* * *

"A duel?" Shinji said in disbelief. "You _have_ those?"

"It's not as if we go around challenging each other, but yes, duelling is a well known practice among nobles in Halkeginia," Guiche said, looking pale. Louise had marched out of the room immediately after making her proclamation and chucking a glove at Shinji's face, and the silence was only beginning to fade as students began to buzz about the upcoming duel. "Sure, throwing a glove was a bit retro, but that was unmistakably a challenge."

"So like, a cooking duel, right? Or maybe sewing? She's not actually challenging me to a-."

"An all out magical battle to the death, yes," Guiche replied. Upon seeing Shinji's expression, he amended his statement. "Well, not to the death, usually. Most of the time it's until one side is either incapacitated or gives up."

Shinji was still unconvinced. "Most of the time?"

Guiche shrugged. "The Academy hasn't had a proper duel in years. As mature as some students, such as myself, are, we aren't old enough to hold proper noble duels with each other. There is a rule in place that prevents students from duelling each other, and it's enforced. I only know this much because my father was the victor of quite a few duels back in the day, or so he says, at length, as I beg him to stop talking. It's part of the reason I don't visit home very often, really…"

"Hey." Suddenly Shinji was irritated. "Kinda not the best time for reminiscing about your shitty childhood."

"Oh yes, my apologies," Guiche said, although he didn't sound very sorry at all. "Anyway, there are rules against students duelling each other. But those rules say nothing about familiars duelling, or people who are here but not actually students. It's a small loophole, but apparently the Zero managed to exploit it here."

"My dad says duels are really manly." One of the thus far silent friends of Guiche suddenly piped up from a chair or two away. "He says the ladies love watching two sweaty guys duke it out."

"Grandmother told me that when she was young, when two girls liked the same guy, they'd have a duel over him," a young girl from a row away said. "She says that's why she's only got one-." She was quickly silenced by her peers before the story could get any more graphic.

"You're all dumb," a particularly short, but self important first year said loudly. "My grampa says that back in his day, there weren't any army battles. Every time a country declared war, it would just send its most awesome heroes to fight each other one at a time until one side gave up. He says that in the Hundred Year war three thousand years ago, he had to fight every day for an entire year!"

"Shut up!" Shinji yelled, silencing the buzz. He glared at the upstart first year. "Your grandad's a horrible liar! People don't live to be three thousand, dumbass!" Then he turned to Guiche. "Now what the hell just happened to make that crazy ten year old body girl challenge me to something like this?" The once calm and collected mask he'd worked hard on cultivating was gone, and now he spoke with anger, unrestrained hate, and a little desperation.

"Um, you might want to calm down first," Guiche said nervously. "And I'd think it quite obvious. I did warn you that Valliere is a prickly one. Perhaps you shouldn't have antagonized her so." As he spoke, he looked like he was seriously reconsidering his decision to associate with the volatile blue haired boy. There were some things you just didn't mess with.

"I expected her to blow up or something," Shinji said angrily. "Not challenge me to a bloody duel." Still, he recognized that he was getting a bit too unstable, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were mostly clear of any rage. "Can I refuse?" he asked.

"Of course," Guiche replied. "In fact, I'd recommend it. A man should never willingly harm a rose, particularly one that has yet to properly bloom. Those terms she gave only apply if you accept, so you can safely say no."

His friends, however, weren't so old fashioned. "Refusing a duel? To the Zero of all people? Are you afraid of her?"

"It's like getting scared of a drunk mosquito."

"Seriously man, bad mojo."

"Talk about cowardly. If you're scared of Zero, of all people, you're probably worse at magic than she is."

"Looks like the familiar can't harm the one holding his leash after all."

Instantly, Shinji realized the trap that had closed around him. He looked at the glove in his hand and his eyes narrowed. "That clever little bitch…" he whispered to himself.

None of the other nobles had gloves on them, and he'd never spotted Louise wearing or putting one on earlier. So she had to have specially gotten it just for the occasion. She'd brought that glove so that she could throw it at him and proclaim her challenge. And then, when she won, she'd be able to assert her control over him with the entire student body witnessing it. Meaning the entire proclamation and argument had been planned.

Well, not quite planned, Shinji admitted. That anger had been real, and he'd felt the girl reeling from his insults. He'd definitely struck home. But the duel… she'd definitely planned that, or at least acknowledged the possibility. If she had challenged him in private, he could've simply asked Guiche and then upon learning the rules, said no with everyone else being none the wiser. But she'd proclaimed it in front of what must've been more than half the school. If he refused, they'd all know that Shinji Matou had refused to fight Louise the Zero. The stain on his pride might heal, but the stain on his reputation would not. If he said no, for whatever reason, he would be even lower than the girl who claimed to be his Master.

Truthfully, although he would never admit it to anyone, let alone himself, Shinji was scared of facing that little girl he had insulted so much. A real Mage Duel. He'd heard and read about such things back in his world, always dreaming of being able to participate in one. But at that moment, suddenly thrust into that exact situation against an opponent that had already hospitalized him twice on a whim, he hesitated.

Why? This was nothing! He'd survived the War, hadn't he? He'd survived Ilyasveil's wrath, hadn't he? He'd controlled Rider like a proper Master, hadn't he? So there was absolutely no way he'd ever hesitate against a stupid little girl!

"Hey," he said softly to Guiche. "Tell me more about this 'Zero'."

* * *

Louise wasn't sure if her day was getting better or getting worse. On one hand, she was agreeing to bet her pride and future on a duel with someone she'd only met a day earlier, and whose abilities she had no knowledge of. The entire school would be there to witness as she, with very little magical skill, faced off against someone who had, according to recent rumours, cowed even Headmaster Osmond himself. Her chances of winning ranged from 50/50 if Shinji was lying about being a magus, to almost nothing if he had been telling the truth.

On the other hand, watching her opponent nervously adjusting his sword every five seconds had a certain charm about it that she could very much appreciate.

The sun was setting, and the students had made a hole in the circle so that it would be visible to the combatants. With every minute that passed it shrank, and its light faded. Although there were plenty of lights illuminating Vestri Court (magical or otherwise), she had decided that the start of the duel would be when the sun finally sank below the horizon.

"That's dumb," Shinji had said.

"My duel, my rules," she'd replied.

Some of the students who possessed foresight were erecting shields of earth or metal around the arena, most of them fearing a wayward explosion from Louise and her legendary horrible aim. She spotted a haggard looking Guiche creating bronze plate after bronze plate for a smug looking Katie and Montmorency. Meanwhile, Kirche, who had situated herself behind Louise, was arguing with Tabitha, although 'arguing' was closer to 'talking and talking while the silent blue haired girl ignored the redhead's words'.

Finally, after a moment, Kirche grabbed the smaller girl's book and yanked it out of Tabitha's hands, holding it high up in the air. Tabitha shot her friend a dirty look, then adjusted her glasses and looked at Louise. She walked over to the Zero and stuck her hand out.

"Wand."

Louise blinked. "Huh?"

"Wand."

With some hesitation, Louise handed over her wand. Tabitha took the instrument, waved her own staff over it a few times, and Louise watched as a spike of ice grew from the end of Louise's wand until it resembled a frozen over rapier. Tabitha handed back the newly created weapon and retreated, whereupon she snapped her fingers and the book in Kirche's hand leapt away, back into the icy girl's grip. Kirche merely laughed.

"I'm not accepting your charity, Kirche!" Louise said angrily upon realizing what had just transpired. "What's the big deal?"

"Oh? So your pride is that powerful, Louise?" The taller girl responded, smiling the entire time. "I'd have thought you could swallow it this once. After all, shouldn't Germania and Tristain be good neighbors?"

"That's the opposite of how they should be!" Louise protested, all while holding the ice sword tightly in her hands. "You've always been my enemy, so what's with the sudden change of heart?"

"You have no enemies but yourself, my dear," Kirche said. "And perhaps that underdeveloped body of yours. But regardless, it is because you are my enemy that I must aid you now. I would much prefer to face you than to be forced to contend with that unruly familiar of yours." She looked at Shinji with distaste. "That boy has the fire, definitely, but it isn't the warm flame of passion. No, that boy will burn everything down because of his rage, without regard for friend or foe. He's dangerous, Louise, much more so than you are. I might choose to try and tame that fire of his in the future, but if I let him defeat you here, he will become insufferable, I just know it."

Then she brightened up. "So if I have to choose, I'd rather face you instead! Besides, what would everyone say if the historical Zerbst-Valliere rivalry was broken by some no name foreigner? It would lower my reputation to have my rival humiliated by anyone other than me."

Louise sensed the lie immediately. In the first place, Kirche had never harbored any particular hatred for her. The buxom girl's teasing had always been light, and she'd even seemed to take pleasure in Louise's angry outbursts. So she was definitely lying. Accepting help from an enemy wasn't something Louise was eager to do. But losing to Shinji would be even worse.

Louise swallowed her pride. "D-don't think that I won't pay you back for this later!" she promised. "I won't be in debt to you, or Tabitha. Just wait. One day I'll make it up to you and we'll be even!" It was the closest she could get to 'Thank You'.

Louise turned away, looking at the sun. There was only a sliver left, and the wall had been completed, shutting them in the arena. Kirche and Tabitha retreated, with the shorter girl conjuring a plate of ice in their wake, completing the wall fully. As the sun slowly disappeared, the two moons became visible in the night sky.

"You can go first," she said to Shinji. "Since you're my familiar, I'll let you have a chance to attack before I defeat you." In reality, she merely wished to get a glimpse of his magecraft, and possibly counter it. Facing an opponent with unknown abilities was too scary.

Shinji merely smiled and reached into his pocket, removing something from within.

By the light of the almost disappeared sun, the charred book was barely visible, and the runes covering it couldn't be read by anyone other than Shinji himself.

In a single moment, the sun sank below the horizon, signalling the beginning of the night, and of their duel.

"Since you're just a Zero, I'll go easy on you," Shinji said in a twisted mockery of Louise's earlier statement. "Just one spell should be enough to take you down. I'll make it quick, so you'd be wise to just give up right now."

And then, without warning, or any kind of chant, the shadows around Shinji rose from the ground.

Darkness from his shadow.

Darkness from the tiny shadows of the blades of grass.

Darkness from the grand shadow of the school.

It rose, twisting and warping into a wispy form that was simultaneously substantial yet not there at all. The tendril of darkness split into three in front of Shinji, and with a subtle wave of his hand all three shuddered and solidified into blades of darkness jutting from the ground like shards of a larger cutting edge. This was the magecraft of the Matou family. The proof that Matou Shinji was most definitely not a commoner.

"Go!" he called out, thrusting his hand forward. The darkness obeyed, and the three blades shot forth, travelling along the ground and sucking the life out of the grass they passed by. In a moment, they passed the halfway mark, and just as Louise was realizing her peril they reached her.

In that moment, Louise was thankful for the sword Tabitha had given her. She swung wildly and weakly, and the blade of ice smacked against the closest shadow, smashing against the unknown substance with a dull 'thunk'. For a moment the world seemed to freeze, but in fact, time had merely slowed down to a crawl. A terrifying numbness travelled up Louise's arm from the point of the blade, and when it reached her shoulder time resumed. She dived to the side, falling on the soft grass as the other two magical blades passed harmlessly by her and the one she'd struck dissipated.

She felt it. The wind rushing beside her cheek, and the small cut that had been made upon her flesh. He wasn't holding back. Her familiar had been going for a killing blow since the beginning.

"Gale!" She felt herself cry out. She hastily tried a wind spell, pointing her numb arm at Shinji from her position on the ground. She felt her willpower gather up, but as usual it merely dissipated instead of becoming a proper spell. Shinji laughed as she rose to her feet.

"Well? What's wrong, Master?" he said mockingly. "Surely you aren't already wounded merely from that greeting I sent you? If getting you on the ground continues to be this easy, then I might just cut the tendons in your feet and have you kneel before me!"

His book glowed, and three more blades materialized in front of him, shooting forward towards Louise, who was still struggling to keep herself upright. If the first batch had been to test her, then the second were at least twice as fast, and coordinated.

Too fast. Her eyes wide with fear, and her tongue too tied up to chant a spell, Louise took a single step back and grabbed onto her wand turned sword with two hands. The three blades curved their path, arriving at their target simultaneously. As they struck Louise's inexperienced guard they fused into one blade almost as large as the girl herself.

This time, she felt the impact directly. The swords were individually as powerful as a swing from a strong soldier, so three at once was obviously too much for a weak young girl to block. She instinctively raised her back foot to take a step back, and it was only that unconscious move that saved her.

The blade pushed forward, and Louise spun away, letting the force push her body and sword from the blade's path. The sword of darkness slashed past her harmlessly, breaking on the wall of ice behind her. Louise's arms were numb, but the girl was alive, if winded.

She raised her wand again. It was like lifting a weight several times to heavy for her, but she forced her body to obey. "Fireball!" she screamed, this time adding her anger to the mix as she cast the spell.

Shinji's laugh was cut short as the bronze plate behind him exploded, bursting into pieces and revealing a terrified Guiche behind it. The boy quickly summoned up another one, but the damage was done. Shinji screamed, a combination of fear and pain, and fell to the ground, his right hand clasped around his left elbow, and a trickle of blood making its way down the arm.

It was then that Louise charged.

Louise the Zero was not a powerful mage. She simply failed at casting most spells, and on occasion would cause her target to simply explode. Not once had she succeeded at anything related. Not once had she proven herself to be anything other than a Zero.

So it was obvious that Louise knew of her own weakness more intimately than anyone else. She knew that all she could do was hope to trigger an explosion, but she also knew that her horrible aim would almost inevitably ensure that said explosion would miss her target. That left her with only one, terrifying option.

She ran straight towards Shinji, dragging her borrowed sword of ice along the ground beside her. Shinji looked up and hastily spawned three more shadow blades, sending them one at a time in hopes of slowing Louise down or taking her out. The book fell onto the grass immediately afterwards as the boy abandoned it in favour of trying to yank a finger sized sliver of bronze from his left arm.

The noise of cheering students faded away as Louise ran. With each step she took, she felt her consciousness separate from her body. It was as if she was dreaming, watching a completely unrealistic scenario play out in front of her. Her anger and fear faded, only to be replaced by…

Nothing.

Merely a Void.

The first blade of darkness was met with a clumsy sidestep. It turned sharply to slash at her, but Louise felt her body slowly raise the chipped and cracked sword in her hands, letting the offending magic splash against her weapon. It almost pushed her off balance, and Louise's desperate charge was temporarily halted as she flailed wildly to regain her balance.

In the next moment, Shinji's second blade arrived. Louise was off balance, and through sheer luck pushed forward with the one foot she still had in position. She fell forward, watching the ground rush to meet her, but was interrupted by a moving shadow. It struck her still outstretched sword, and the recoil pushed her back, ironically giving the girl another chance to stay on her feet.

She dashed as the shadow disappeared, putting more power into her legs than she had ever done before. She couldn't feel her arms, and wasn't even sure if she was still holding on to the wand or if she'd lost her grip on it in the confusion. But it didn't matter. Only a bit more to go.

The third blade was the largest of the three, and the fastest. It headed straight for Louise, sucking the life from the ground beneath it to fuel its own path. The darkness twisted as it neared its target, forming a whip that shot towards Louise's throat like an uncoiling cobra.

But she'd raised her hands, the sword of ice miraculously still there, and the tip of the ropelike construct wrapped around the point of her rapier. Louise spun, yanking the sword down and to the right, using the tendril's resistance to propel herself further with movements born from pure desperation and refusal to lose. She jumped past Shinji's final spell, feeling more than hearing a sharp crack as she did so. It could have been one of her bones, but she was past the point of feeling pain and didn't notice any difference.

What she did notice, though, was that Shinji was standing once more.

There was a bronze sword in his hands…

…and the runes on the back of his hand were glowing.

It was too late to stop and puzzle it out. Stopping was no longer an option, so Louise opened her mouth and cast her spell, praying that it would work, as she did every single time.

"Fireball!"

Another explosion, and the rock wall behind Shinji was torn apart violently. But he was already gone. In the blink of an eye the familiar had disappeared from Louise's sight using speed alone, speed he hadn't previously displayed.

She fell then, and it was only that coincidence that saved her life. Louise felt a suddenly sharp blade parting the air above her head and slicing through the hair she'd been growing out. She rolled forward, somehow managing not to collapse as her tired muscles protested the action. There was a sudden rush, and sound returned to her perception. Cheers, screams, and various people yelling things she couldn't understand were the bulk of it. But there was more as well. The sound of clothes rustling, and a certain boy's laughter.

"What's wrong, Zero?" Shinji said. Louise rose to one knee, trying to catch her breath, and spotted Shinji in the middle of the arena. The sword was still in his hands, and his grin had grown to encompass his entire expression. "Kneeling already? I'd have thought I'd see more fight in you."

"Q-quake," Louise muttered as she pointed her ice covered wand at Shinji. There was no explosion, but even if there had been, Shinji had dashed out of the way of her aim the moment she raised her wand. His speed was inhuman. She'd only once seen a similar feat, and that had been from an expert warrior. But that didn't make any sense. There was no way for him to be that fast!

There was no time for thinking. Louise gathered up her fading consciousness and cast a spell once more. A wall of rock on the other side of the arena exploded, sending hundreds of blades of grass and flecks of dirt into the air, but Shinji, the one she'd been aiming for, was already a dozen feet away. He laughed once more and began to slowly walk towards Louise, idly swinging his blade as he did so, busying himself with cutting the slowly falling specks of debris out of the air.

Louise cast another hasty spell, but it fizzled out before she could fully form it. Shinji had moved to her left in that brief second. She let loose another explosion, damaging another wall, but Shinji had appeared to her right, laughing the entire time.

And then he was in front of her, bringing his sword back for a one handed slash that would nonetheless cut her open from head to toe.

It was only Tabitha's ice sword that saved her. Louise wasn't sure if Shinji was merely unused to swordplay or if he'd chosen to clash blades, but his sword of bronze struck her frozen rapier with a sharp crack. It took all of her strength to keep it from being ripped from her grip, but Shinji didn't even seem winded. He drew back his arm, knowing that Louise couldn't even attack in her state, and slashed again, his maniacal laughter only growing louder.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Louise's hands were completely numb. Shinji must've been making his swings weaker on purpose to draw out the fight.

Crack.

Crack.

Her legs wouldn't move. She couldn't dodge, and couldn't duck out of the way.

Crack.

Vision was going. All she could see was her annoying familiar's smug face. His smile, his leer, his irritating expression, all of it was perfectly visible.

And perfectly annoying.

Crash.

The other half of Tabitha's ice blade landed behind Louise. Even though it had been an expertly made spell, a makeshift blade of frozen water couldn't hope to defeat a real metal sword, even one that lacked a proper cutting edge.

"Well?" Shinji asked, taking a step forward and moving right in front of the motionless Louise. "Ready to give up? You should be thankful I'm not breaking some bones right now, so you might as well pay me back by calling me 'Master'."

"…" The world was fuzzy. Was this what warriors felt like all the time? The Zero looked down, too embarrassed to show her familiar the tears in the corner of her eyes. She felt a metal wall at her back and realized that she only stood by virtue of its comfortable support. It was over.

"Really, I don't get why you're being so stubborn." Shinji continued, spotless other than the bloody hole in his arm that he'd suddenly decided to ignore. "Wasn't this your idea in the first place? I'd have thought you'd be a better sport about it. But I suppose spoiled brats will be spoiled brats."

"…"

Shinji frowned. He raised his blade, gripping it with both hands and preparing to bring it down on his defenceless opponent's head. "Oy. This is getting annoying. Either give up, or I'm knocking you out. And I'm warning you now, I'm not holding back. I've been feeling amazing ever since I drew this sword. I'm so strong now might even end up breaking your scrawny little neck by accident."

"…"

"Tch." If Louise had looked up, she would have seen Shinji hesitate for a split second. A moment of hesitation, caused by something he had never felt before. He didn't understand the appearance of the sudden urge to protect the girl he hated, and so he merely pushed past it. "Fine, have it your way!"

"Fire…"

The sword descended.

"…ball!"

And that second of hesitation spelt Matou Shinji's ruin.

The explosion caught him in the stomach, blasting the boy back. At point blank range there had been no chance of dodging. He flew like a ragdoll through the air, floating for what seemed like an eternity before crumpling against the wall of ice that had blocked his path. His sword landed a few feet away, digging point first into the ground.

Suddenly, the world was quiet.

Louise dragged herself forward, taking one painful step every few seconds. Her wand fell from hands that lacked the strength to hold it. But still, she took steady steps forward, never once wavering.

At the same time, Shinji groaned and lifted his head from the ground. The glowing runes on the back of his right hand had faded, and all the strength that had carried him through the battle was gone as well. He couldn't rise to save his life. He managed to turn over onto his back, but found that he couldn't move any more. After an eternity, a sharp point pricked his neck. He looked down and saw the broken off tip of Louise's icicle blade pointed at him.

Louise knelt by his side, looking as if she'd been run over by a stampede. "Give up," she said bluntly, sounding more tired than proud. Her eyes were empty of any emotion.

Shinji hesitated for a moment, and then felt the icicle draw a single drop of blood that immediately froze over. "I-I yield," he said bitterly, hating himself for those words. At the same time, though, he couldn't find the energy to protest them.

Instead, he gazed at the night sky, clear of clouds and displaying the constellations brilliantly.

"There are two moons." It wasn't a surprise. That only confirmed his earlier hypothesis.

"Ah, dammit," Shinji whispered, having just wagered his pride and lost. "This isn't my world after all."


	5. Chapter 5: Loss and Your Familiar

There had been no applause.

Hours after the duel, after spending an hour tossing and turning and trying to fall asleep in the middle of the night from the pain of her abused muscles, Louise couldn't stop thinking about it.

There had been no applause. Nothing at all, really, for the first few seconds. After Shinji's loss, absolutely nothing had happened for an entire minute. He'd stared at the sky, she'd stared at him, and the crowd had stared at them through the dozens of small holes they'd made in their walls. It was Guiche who broke the stalemate by making his bronze plates vanish and walking away, but even that hadn't broken the silence. The rest of the students had followed his lead, leaving Vestri Court with nothing to say, but much more to think about. Not even the teachers had interfered, likely on the Headmaster's order. Why he'd do such a thing wasn't something Louise wanted to think about.

After ten or so minutes of waiting numbly on the ground, it was her body's aching that had roused Louise from the stupor that had overtaken her ever since the halfway point of her clumsy battle. She'd stood with some difficulty, ordered Shinji to follow her (with mild surprise when he'd complied without protest or difficulty) and too the long way back to her room, after which she'd fallen, dirty clothes and all, into bed.

She should've been tired, but her body had accepted sleep for no more than fifteen minutes at a time before the pain made her wake up again. It wasn't as if she'd never felt such a thing, but there was too much attached to it this time for her to simply ignore, and so Louise couldn't fall asleep.

She raised her head and looked to the other side of the room. Shinji's bed had been delivered during the day, and he lay broken on it, in the same state as her. While it wasn't nearly as large as her own, Louise had nonetheless ordered it brought to her room the previous day, after realizing that no noble, even one that had been reduced to the level of a familiar, would tolerate sleeping on hay. She was already regretting that decision, but had decided against rescinding it. There was no longer any point in antagonizing Shinji. Even after suffering through his hatred, his punishment, and his scorn during the duel… for some reason she couldn't bring herself to despise him.

"Familiar," she said, staring blankly at the ceiling. "Tell me where you are from again."

"Japan." Shinji's reply was empty of his usual sarcasm and arrogance. He sounded almost… empty. Had she not also felt spent herself, Louise would've been worried, but strangely, she understood his feelings completely. They'd completely used up all of their energy, leaving behind nothing but almost empty shells of their former selves. No doubt they'd both be back to normal in the morning, but at that moment neither of them had the energy to antagonize the other.

"Where's that?" she asked.

"East."

Louise tried to picture what East looked like, and failed.

"If I traveled East, I wouldn't reach Japan, would I?"

"No," Shinji said. "You wouldn't."

There was silence for another minute as Louise formulated her question. She had too much to ask, and not enough energy to make sense of it all. She was tempted simply to fall asleep and leave the questioning for morning, but some part of her prevented her from doing so. She knew that when they both woke up, their mutual hatred would return stronger than before. It was only in that moment, when both the Master and the Familiar had been reduced to such broken states, that they could speak like this.

"What's it like?" she asked. "Your world."

"Different." Shinji's reply was curt, as usual. Louise was about to ask him to elaborate, but he began to speak without her prodding after a moment. "Our society is much more advanced than yours. We're better in almost every single way. Our technology can travel to the stars, fly across the world in hours, and obliterate entire cities, all without using up a single unit of prana."

"What's prana?"

"…it's how we use magecraft. This place may be different, but where I come from, you need to have Magic Circuits and Od to cast spells. Those are inherited through blood, meaning the child of a magus will by all rights have a potential to be a magus themselves. Your world has something similar, apparently, since you said only the children of nobles can use magic."

Louise hesitated before asking the next question. "Are you really your family's heir?"

"Yeah," Shinji said. "I'm the last Matou child. I have a sister, but… she isn't going to inherit the title of Head. It's not going to happen. It can't happen."

"So without you… they have no heir?"

Shinji was silent for a few moments, and then suddenly let out a sharp, barking laugh. "Yeah. That's right! I'm the only hope the Makiri have of surviving. Me! Not her! She's worthless! I'm the only one that matters! I'm… I'm not someone you can just throw away! I'm special! Really, I am! So she can't have it! My life is mine! The family title is mine! It's my privilege, my responsibility! It's my burden, and no one can take it away from me."

There were a few more minutes of silence after his outburst.

"Is that why you hate me so much?" Louise asked. "Because I took you away from your family?"

"No," Shinji said. "I hate you because you're a raging bitch who thinks it's fine to treat me like a slave just because I was summoned under you. I hate you because you forced me to sleep on hay yesterday, because you blew me up three times, because you get in my way all the time, and-."

"Because I took away your freedom."

"Yeah."

Louise felt as if there was something Shinji was leaving out, but she also knew that pressing him on the subject was going to be pointless, so she took the first tangent she could think of. "So your family's gone? You can't see them again until you get back?"

"Yeah, that's right," Shinji said. "That old drunk is gone. Good riddance too. And that bitch of a sister, well, I won't be seeing her any time soon. And gramps can't touch me anymore. He's on the other side of the world. No, even farther than that." Shinji paused then, for a while. "It's gone. The burden I swore I would bear. It's gone now. I'm… free."

"…no, you aren't. You're my familiar. That's your new burden. It's the one you've been given, and as of now, the one you chose. You've caused me more trouble in two days than Kirche could in two years, but since you're my familiar, I'll forgive you for it." Louise hesitated once more. Her day had been full of pain and danger, but… "For what it's worth, I hope you get to see your family again one day. No one deserves to be separated from the place they belong, and I'm sorry for taking you from those who love you."

There was no reply at first, but after a few moments…

"Heh." Shinji chuckled. And then he laughed. He laughed harder than he'd ever laughed in his life. It wasn't his usual mocking laugh either. For the first time, he laughed like a starving man who'd just been given water. He laughed like a madman, and as quick as his sudden bout of laughter had begun, it stopped.

"So I'm trading one burden for another, huh?" He paused. After a moment of thought, he spoke, this time with a more measured tone, hiding behind false politeness. "May I go to sleep, 'Master'?"

"You have my permission. Just don't snore this time." And with that, Louise closed her eyes, allowing the turmoil in her mind to fade and be replaced by warm memories of playing with her older sister. She put aside all thoughts of familiars, magi, and Matou Shinji. For that night, she would sleep like the dead.

True to his word, Shinji didn't snore. In fact, he didn't sleep at all. He waited silently into the night, letting minutes pass until Louise's stopped moving about, her breathing evened out, and he was sure the girl was asleep.

Then he rose, letting the covers fall from his body. He straightened, nimbly hopping onto the floor, glad that the carpet didn't make any noise. The wound in his arm ached but didn't impede any movements, so he safely ignored its pain. He had something that needed to be done.

With slow, deliberate steps he walked towards Louise's bed, approaching the sleeping girl. Within moments he stood above the person who had defeated and humiliated him, the person who had dared to pity his situation after helping to make it even worse. His repressed hatred boiled up, filling him with a familiar rage and letting him do what he needed to.

His hands extended, gently wrapping around Louise's thin neck. The girl didn't notice a thing, being too engrossed in her dreams to feel any outside stimuli. She wouldn't feel a thing.

Shinji bore no expression. He was still as empty as he had been before, but now there was a sense of purpose. He needed to be set free, and to do that, he had to get rid of the person who dared to enslave him. Without Louise, he would be able to go wherever he wished and do whatever he wanted. Through her lay freedom.

"…"

He let go. Shinji's hands returned to his sides, and he turned away. The boy walked to his bed, looked at the already bloody hole in his arm, shrugged, and lay down.

"I guess I'll give this a shot."

He didn't close his eyes once that night.

* * *

"We need to make a deal," Shinji said the next morning.

"Hm?" Louise stopped in the middle of combing her now slightly less messed up hair. "What do you mean?"

"About this familiar thing," elaborated Shinji. "I've been thinking about it all night, and I've decided that, being the better person here, I'm willing to compromise in certain points."

"But I beat you in a duel," Louise said, confused. She put down the comb and paused while debating whether she could squeeze in a bath to get rid of the dirt on her body. "That means you have to listen to me."

"On the contrary, you never actually specified what kind of conditions there were for me losing." Shinji was smiling again. "You've certainly shown me what the Familiar of a Zero can expect, however: explosions, explosions, and more of the same. But since I'm merciful, I'll give you a bonus because of that."

"A… bonus?"

Shinji grinned. "I'll listen to your orders while we're in public, as long as it's nothing that I'd regret later, and you promise to keep them down to a minimum. Say… once a week should be fine. While we're alone, though, I can do whatever I want. I'm not going to do your laundry or your chores, either. Oh, and I guess a public apology will be needed, but I'll limit it to ten seconds. Deal?"

Louise blinked. "…what?"

"Deal or no deal. Just answer the question, Zero."

"I'm not a Zero!" Louise yelled. "And why should I be making deals with you? I'm pretty sure you tried to kill me yesterday! If anything, I should be reporting you to the Headmaster!"

"I was merely defending myself from your tyrannical magic." Shinji ducked and a hairbrush sailed over his head. "Look, you can't honestly blame me for acting that way! Anyone else in my position would've done the same thing unless they were a spineless wimp! In any case, it's either this or we go back to yesterday, with constant yelling, arguing, and one of us probably ending up dead. Do you really want that?!"

Louise paused, about to throw a hand mirror this time. She lowered it with a thoughtful look in her eyes. Almost every fiber of her being urged her to refuse. Trusting a person like Shinji to keep his promise was like trusting the Headmaster not to peek at someone's underwear.

Shinji noticed her hesitation. With a sigh, he forced his face into a gentler expression. "Sorry," he suddenly said. He picked up the hair brush. "I see that I've been pushing you into this a bit quickly. Just think about my offer for a few minutes, then. You don't have to say anything right now."

Louise frowned and crossed her arms. The small mirror was still in her hands, though. "Where are you going with this?"

"Nowhere," Shinji replied, using that same gentle tone. "Here, just sit down for a moment." He pulled up a chair next to the table and larger mirror in Louise's room, and gestured towards it. Louise hesitated, but the girl moved and tentatively sat down, suddenly feeling nervous for reasons she couldn't fully understand. Perhaps it was because Shinji being nice to her felt… wrong.

Shinji turned the chair until Louise was looking at herself in the mirror. She saw the dirt on her face, a small scratch on her chin, and…

"Sorry," Shinji repeated as he lifted a lock of his Master's hair. Whereas before it had gone down to the small of her back, his sword had sliced off several inches, leaving the blond locks barely reaching Louise's shoulders. Her hair was also full of dirt and matted with sticks and leaves.

"It's nothing," Louise said gruffly. It was, but that didn't matter. "You've done plenty of worse things. I don't think you should be apologizing for this."

"On the contrary, this is very bad," the boy said with a smile. Louise thought she saw a hint of cunning in his expression, but couldn't be sure. At the very least, his words seemed sincere. "You see," he continued. "In my country, women place great value on their hair. It is a part of social status, and many spend hours upon hours perfecting a single style. So to cut one's hair is a very important occasion, and a bad hair cut can ruin someone's year."

"R-really? That sounds a bit extreme."

"Well, it's merely culture. In any case, there is a silver lining to this impromptu hair cut I've given you. See, a hair cut also has significance in my world."

"Significance?" Now she was curious. Louise couldn't help but reveal her interest despite her attempts to maintain a stoic, focused expression.

Shinji grinned again. He ran his fingers and the comb through Louise's hair, shaking away loose debris. "For someone to cut off this much of their hair is very often a signal of their resolve. It is a sign to the world that they have grown past the need for it, and that they have undergone a personal or spiritual victory. It is a girl's, or rather, a woman's way of showing that they have developed as a person, leaving behind past gripes and weaknesses. So, I think that this could be your signal to the students of this academy that you are leaving it behind as well."

"Leaving what behind?"

"Zero." Shinji continued brushing, and Louise watched, mesmerized, as his previously terrifying hands suddenly became gentle, coaxing the mess from her head. "You can throw it away, that past of yours. Forget those insults, forget that title, and forget your failure. You've changed, haven't you? So why don't you prove that you've changed for the better?"

"For… the better?"

"We've both made mistakes," Shinji whispered. In the mirror, Louise could see that he was almost relaxed, yet she herself couldn't shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong. "I was harsh with you earlier, but can you really blame me? Alone, suddenly thrust into a world I don't know and enslaved by a girl who doesn't hesitate to punish me for no reason. Wouldn't something like that drive someone mad?"

"I… guess I might have been a bit rough on you…"

"Congratulations," Shinji said. The brushing stopped, and Louise's hair was almost spotless again. "Now that you've admitted that mistake of yours, you can grow past it, can't you? So why don't we move past this bad first impression of ours? You're about sixteen, aren't you? In many cultures that's the age where children become adults. So as an adult, don't you think we can work out some kind of agreement here, one that benefits both of us?"

Abruptly, Louise stood. A burst of anger flared up in the pit of her stomach as she realized the purpose of Shinji's kind words. Of course. They'd been simply to convince her to go along with his plans. She shouldn't have expected anything else. Furious, she turned and prepared to violently refuse, but-.

She paused.

But… it had been the first time that the boy had offered a deal. No matter how smug his face, no matter how ugly his words, it was better than what he'd been like earlier. "I… guess I can try this. Fine, we can do a temporary agreement. Say… a week. If it works out, I'll agree to make it permanent." Louise was still hesitant, but denying progress would only lead to more of the same, and she knew that she couldn't survive like that. If she wanted to live with her new familiar, then explosions wouldn't be enough to keep him in check. Her arms still ached from deflecting his sword strikes.

Still, that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. "Oh, and I get one order an hour," she said suddenly. Despite her youth, Louise was a noble as well. Although she rarely ventured to use them, she too had been taught the skills necessary to navigate the political world. Namely, bargaining. "Plus you aren't allowed to call me names, and every time you call me Zero I'll get to blow you up for free."

Shinji shook his head, and flipped the hair brush in his hands, offering the handle to Louise. "Once a day," he said. "And no explosions, period. But if I fuck up, I'll owe you another order on the spot, no strings attached. Oh, and you can't ask me about things I don't want to tell you. My business is my own."

Louise hesitated, then grasped the handle. "…deal."

"Excellent." Shinji grinned, let go, and turned on his feet, his business with his Master finished.

Just as Shinji was about to leave, though-. "Wait." He stopped. Louise looked at her familiar, trying to understand him and failing. What made Matou Shinji tick? Even after the previous night's questioning, she still couldn't understand what drove him, and part of her didn't even want to. Eventually she settled for simply stating her feelings. "Why are you negotiating with me like this?"

"To get myself in a better position, obviously," The boy said. "Why else would I? I already tried reversing our positions and that didn't work, so I'm settling for the next best thing. It's merely the most logical choice."

His words made sense. Too much sense. Suddenly, an idea struck Louise, and she voiced it immediately instead of pursuing her previous thought. "…how old are you?"

"Eighteen," the boy said, suddenly dropping his earlier pretense of politeness. "But I look about half a dozen years older than you, I'm thinking. It explains why I'm so irritated by your presence, I suppose. I never could stand brats. Tell me, are you actually sixteen or did your daddy pay the school to let you skip ahead?"

"You… idiot!" Louise raised her wand to cast a spell that would inevitably turn into an explosion, but stopped at the last second as she remembered the agreement she'd made in the past few minutes. And with that realization came horror. Her face fell, and her eyes widened. Her mouth froze, about to scream a spell and bring forth failed magic once more. But she couldn't. Not when she'd promised to reign herself in.

"...oh no," she groaned as Shinji started laughing. "This probably wasn't a good idea."

* * *

The climb up the tower was long, and by the end of it Colbert was panting, cursing his lack of practice.

The short, balding man quietly opened the door to the Headmaster's office after looking around to make sure no one had spotted him. When he entered, he shut the door with equal care. Although as a teacher, he had every right to visit the headmaster, he was still nervous, especially about the nature of his meeting.

The office being pitch black didn't help matters. The teacher could barely see a thing with the candles put out, and it was only the tiny slit of sunlight coming into the room from the window that gave him enough light to make out a form sitting there.

"Osmond?" he called out. "I've got something important to tell you."

The Headmaster's chair faced the window, and the Headmaster himself was only visible by the small mouse perched on top of his head, chattering away, no doubt about the secretary's latest underwear. "Does it concern Valliere's familiar?" The man's reply was weary. He sounded less like a leader and more like a tired old man.

"Yes," Colbert said. "You need to hear this."

With difficulty, Osmond rose from his seat, still looking out the window. "Is it about the duel?" He placed one hand on the glass and stared outside at Vestri Court, which still bore the scars of the previous day's fight. "If you wish, I can explain to you why I chose to let it proceed instead of stopping it with the Bell of Sleep." Colbert couldn't see the man's expression with the darkness clouding his vision.

Irritated, he snapped his fingers and the candle on Osmond's desk flickered to life. "No, not exactly about the duel," said the younger teacher. "I've been curious about your decision, yes, but this might possibly be even more important than that."

Osmond turned to look at Colbert. "…Miss Longueville isn't here now. She said she had something to look at near the treasure vault." The old man waved his hand and the door and curtains slammed shut. "Hm… if it isn't that… then perhaps your topic of immense importance concerns the sudden speed and agility I saw from Valliere's familiar yesterday?"

"That's right." Colbert was surprised, but did his best not to show it. Instead, he handed the old Headmaster a quick sketch. "I copied down the runes from his hand and cross referenced them with some of the books in the library. It was only a hunch, but I believe I'm correct. If that movement was from the runes, like I suspect, then…"

"These runes…"

"Yes." Colbert said. "They're the same runes once borne by the legendary familiar Gandalfr!"

Contrary to Colbert's expectations, Osmond showed little reaction to the revelation. "And? Do you think the boy is Gandalfr?"

Colbert hesitated. "Well… no. Gandalfr was a heroic figure, known from battling alongside Brimir himself. When I look at this boy, I only see a mage, and a nasty one at that. He resembles all the worst aspects of royalty without any of the actual nobility associated with that status. When it comes to narcissism he makes even the son of Gramont look kind by comparison. Matou Shinji is, in my eyes, the exact opposite of what Gandalfr should be."

Osmond smiled. "But do you think he is Gandalfr?"

Colbert paused again. When he opened his mouth, it was easy to see that his words were unsure. "I don't know. He could be. For a legendary familiar to have been summoned by that girl… it would be a strange coincidence. But I also find it highly unlikely. This is the first time in history that a mage has been summoned as a familiar. Historically, as well, Gandalfr was not known for being able to cast spells. I've even heard a few theories that it was a commoner originally, before being granted power from Brimir himself. If Matou Shinji is a mage, then he can't be Gandalfr. That is my conclusion."

Osmond sighed. He sat down on his chair again, and spun his finger in a circle. The chair levitated off the ground and rotated, stopping once he was facing the right way. The Headmaster put his elbows on the table, knotted his fingers together, and leaned his head on them, hiding the lower part of his face. "Colbert," he began. "Would your answer change if I told you that Matou Shinji is not a mage, but merely a commoner?"

Colbert's frowned. "But… isn't that impossible?"

"As impossible as a human familiar?" Osmond said. "As impossible as that Staff of Destruction we've been unable to replicate or use? As impossible as Miss Longueville wearing striped panties for an entire week?"

"I… what?"

"Forget it." Osmond waved away Colbert's curiosity. "Just a speculation. Don't mind it. What's more important now is that we can't leave that boy to act on his own, so I'll be charging you with keeping an eye on him." Abruptly, the old man changed the subject. "You can act at your discretion, of course, as long as you don't interfere unless someone's life is in danger. I'm sure it'll be an excellent opportunity to investigate this whole 'Gandalfr' business as well."

Colbert opened his mouth to protest. Then he closed it. The balding teacher scratched his skull, furrowed his brows, and thought for a solid minute. After exactly 60 seconds of internal debate, he spoke. "Did… did she really wear striped panties for a whole week?"

Osmond smiled, and revealed a pure sphere of crystal that had most certainly not been on his desk a moment before. Smoke gathered in the crystal ball, preparing to reveal secrets they had no business poking their noses into. "Do you want to find out?"

* * *

When Louise dragged her sore body into the dining hall for breakfast, there was a moment of silence. All conversations ceased, and most of the student body turned to stare at the Zero who'd won her first duel. She ignored them and sat down, munching morosely on a piece of bread, her appetite nowhere in sight. She could hear whispering, but didn't bother trying to eavesdrop. Perhaps it had been Shinji's continuing irritating behavior, or merely her own weariness and mixed feelings about their little 'deal', but she simply couldn't find it in herself to bother with being angry.

After realizing that no, Louise hadn't died, or transformed into some kind of mutant, and that she was indeed the same person they'd always talked about, the students went back to their business. As usual, there was the occasional mention of 'Zero', but for one reason or another, that word was used much less frequently than usual. Louise took no notice of the reduced volume of insults, preferring to focus on finishing her meal as fast as possible, while imagining herself taking a long, relaxing bath after classes.

"I like the look, Louise." Sadly, a peaceful, uninterrupted meal was not among the day's blessings. Louise frowned as the one voice familiar enough to lift her stupor made itself known. Kirche sat down next to the petite Valliere, with Tabitha silently flanking the larger girl's other side. "I think it suits you. You just scream 'au naturale', if you catch my drift. I'd bet the Earth mages will be all over you."

"Shouldn't you have better things to do than harass your betters, Kirche?" Louise shot back, pausing her feeding frenzy for a few moments to direct a glare towards her smug rival. "I figured that even a Germanic barbarian such as yourself would have enough honour to leave me in peace, but I suppose I must've overestimated you in that regard."

"Harassment is a cruel, cruel word, Miss Valliere," Kirche said, putting on an air of haughtiness quite unlike her previous behaviour. She sighed suddenly. "I prefer to refer to it as collecting payment upon a debt." She punctuated her sentence by taking a sip from the cup of tea in her hands.

"…debt?"

Kirche pouted, plucked a grape from the nearby dish, and popped it in her mouth. "Surely you haven't forgotten? Did your brain get shaken up from yesterday's ordeal? Need I remind you of who it was that gave you the weapon you needed to win that match?"

Louise's mood soured once more. "That was Tabitha," she said weakly. "I owe her, not you."

But Kirche wasn't having any of it. Whatever strange urge had seized her the day of the duel hadn't spent itself, and the girl's eyes sparkled with barely suppressed curiosity. "Nope!" she proclaimed. "Tabitha did it at my behest, so I'm still the one who helped you win. That's right. Valliere couldn't have survived without Zerbst. So pay up, Louise!"

"…ever…" Louise mumbled, staring straight ahead, irritated once more.

"Hm?" Kirche cupped a hand against her ear. "What was that?"

"I said whatever!" Louise snapped. "Fine, I'll pay you back! Just tell me what you want already! Is it money? If you've spent all your funds on ridiculous scented candles then I'll gladly pay you. Or do you want boys? I don't exactly have any cousins, but I'm betting for someone as picky as you I could dress up in guy's clothing and you'd mistake me for Guiche, if that's what you're after!"

"I resent that!" A weak voice came from across the room, but the protests of the young Gramont were quickly silenced as Shinji pulled the boy's head down, dragging him back into the huddle of boys that had been formed earlier.

"Nothing so base, Valliere," the fiery redhead said. She ran a hand though her hair, taking the chance to push out her prominent chest for those watching. Several boys quickly excused themselves from the table and ran out of the hall tightly clutching their robes around the groin area, but Louise merely felt a sudden bout of jealousy combined with the urge to vomit.

"All I want," began Kirche. "Is some information on that familiar of yours." Her last words were said at a whisper. For a moment the sound of Tabitha turning her book's pages nearby halted, only to be resumed again a moment later.

Louise blinked. "Huh?" The smaller girl wasn't quite sure what Kirche had said.

Kirche rolled her eyes. "Your familiar, Valliere. The one you've been arguing with nonstop? The one you almost killed? Is that ringing any bells?"

"I know what you're talking about!" the smaller girl shot back with an angry whisper. "What I'm wondering about is why! If you want to know about that idiot, although I don't see why that would ever be the case, then go ask him!" Apart from the sheer impossibility of anyone actually liking Shinji, it was bad enough that said person had to be her worst enemy. Louise suppressed a shudder at the thought of Kirche and Shinji… together… Ugh.

"I plan to," Kirche said. "But I want to gather more information from other sources first. Knowing something your opponent doesn't is always an advantage in any situation. So I'm asking you before anything else. Is there a problem with that?"

"No, I guess not." It actually wasn't a problem, Louise realized. She knew next to nothing about Shinji other than a few vague details about him being the heir to his family. Unless Kirche specifically asked for the boy's secret, Louise was planning on not revealing it, even though her skills when it came to lying were nonexistent at best. "Fine, ask away then. But make it quick. I don't want to spend any more time looking at you."

Fortunately for Louise, Kirche's question was predictable, if slightly unpleasant to ponder.

"How many girls has he dated?" she asked.

"…what?"

"How many people ?" Kirche repeated. "How many times has your familiar shared the flames of his passion? Has he mentioned any specifics? Perhaps how skilled he is in certain areas, or what kind of partner he prefers? Guys like to brag, so he should at least have told you something-."

"Wait wait wait!" Louise stopped Kirche's inquisitive assault before it could progress into full blown harassment. "Why would you want to know something like that?!"

"All matters of passion are my business!" Kirche said proudly. The students, already used to the eccentricities of their fellows, paid her no mind, but Louise just groaned. She could live with the girl for years, but Louise would never be able to understand how Kirch von Zerbst operated. "And right now, I'm interested in that familiar of yours. He's only been here two days, but he's already established himself as a bad boy, so I'll have to keep up with the latest developments and see where this goes."

"That's ridiculous! Didn't you just yesterday offer to help me out because you thought he was dangerous?" Louise was more surprised at her own lack of foresight than at Kirche's complete 180 attitude shift concerning Shinji. Really, a development that ridiculous should have been obvious.

"Ah, yes, the burning flames of dark passion." Kirche closed her eyes and sighed. "Isn't it wonderful, Valliere? To be embraced, burned by such darkness… wouldn't it be exquisite?"

"Not really, no."

"Bah!" Kirche dismissed Louise's denial. Beside her, Tabitha rolled her eyes, perfectly content to be ignored. "That just goes to show how little passion you have! How could you not be electrified by the prospect of having such a volatile person lust after you? Just think! He could be harboring deep, dark feelings that threaten to overwhelm his self control at this very moment! It's super, super romantic!"

"I'm still not seeing it."

"Tch. Well, I should've expected as much from a Valliere. It's no wonder that ancestor of yours preferred to come to our side of the fence all those hundreds of years ago."

Ah, there was that familiar anger. "That was a kidnapping!" Louise protested. "Romance had nothing to do with it!"

"Only on the surface, my dear. Any competent historian would be able to tell you that if you would merely examine the feelings of those involved-."

"Oh, sure, so seduction is love now? Just because your harlot of a great grandmother was involved doesn't make it right!"

"Hey, leave Gran out of this! I don't see you defending that lusty old ancestor of yours!"

"That's completely different and you know it-!"

"Quiet."

Suddenly, the argument that was about to explode stopped, enveloping the dining hall in wondrous silence. Both Louise and Kirche continued shouting for a few seconds until they realized that they weren't saying anything.

"Out." Tabitha, now clearly annoyed, adjusted her glasses and gestured with the wand in her hand. The message was clear. Any discussions wouldn't be held within ear shot of the main student body, or any girl trying to read her literature in peace.

Kirche silently grumbled, but quickly relented, rising from her seat. She calmly strode out of the hall, followed by a still furious Louise, who had been reduced to making rude gestures in lieu of verbal abuse.

When they found themselves out of the hall, both girls felt the spell of silence that Tabitha had woven around them fade away. They were among the familiars, standing on a winding stone path through a peaceful patch of green. Tabitha's blue dragon was snoozing in the center of the grassy field with several smaller finding places near the walls. A solitary floating eye gazed blankly at them, and Louise pushed it away with a huff.

"Sometimes…" Kirche began. "Sometimes I get the feeling that Tabitha's much better at magic than I'll ever be."

Louise said nothing. She was too busy trying to remember what Shinji had told her.

"I can't help you much," she said finally. "He may be my familiar, but it's only been two days, and we haven't been on the best terms lately. So no, I can't tell you anything about his previous… partners." The blonde shuddered as she said the word.

"Hmph," Kirche nodded. "I expected as much. If he's a foreigner, then perhaps his mysterious culture makes him secretive. What if I broaden my search, then? A name will do. It doesn't have to be a lover, just anyone. If you can't find out about someone directly, you should try looking at the people that person knows first."

"Well, in that case..."

"Hm?"

Louise opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it. She furrowed her brows. "There was something," she whispered. "I can barely remember it, but I think there was a name."

"Oho?" Kirche's eyes lit up once more. "So he did have someone! Who is she, then? Maybe I can see if she lives nearby and question her about the details."

"That's actually a distinct possibility," Louise said as the gears in her mind began to turn. "He didn't really seem to like her, but he did mention someone by name. A girl called… um… Illyasveil von Einzbern, I think. It seems like a Germanian name, so maybe she's a cousin of yours."

There was no response.

"Kirche?"

The crack of fine china was like a cannon blast in the otherwise quiet garden. Several sensitive familiars jerked awake and looked about before closing their eyes again. The floating eye was still watching, but it was focused on the ground, not on the two girls. The broken remains of Kirche's tea cup lay on the stone path, scattering liquid and sharp shards everywhere. Louise turned to look, and realized quickly that something was wrong. Kirche's usually bright face had suddenly gone pale. Her hands were shaking, and there was undiluted fear in her eyes.

There was something to be said for Noble subtlety, but at that point, none was needed, for the the girl's silent answer was plain as day.

Kirche most definitely knew Illyasveil von Einzbern, and she was absolutely terrified.


	6. Chapter 6: Another Side, Another Mess

When he stumbled his way into the Dining Hall, Shinji had expected many things. Stunned silence would've been nice. Some awed looks, acceptable. Laughter and derision would've been unpleasant but not entirely unexpected, given his embarrassing loss to a girl who couldn't cast a single spell properly. However, none of those things came to pass.

There was a slight lull in the background noise as the students looked at him, his hair, still wet from a hasty dunk in the nearby river, and the clunky bandage on his arm. Five seconds later, their heads turned back almost in unison, as if the newcomer never existed. It was something he was familiar with. Not being on the receiving end, obviously, but the tactic wasn't unknown to him. The entire student body had denied Shinji's existence as one, with no prior agreement.

Well, all save one, who fidgeted and tried to keep his eyes away from Shinji, but was clearly failing.

"You don't look so good," Shinji said as he took an empty seat next to a miserable Guiche. "What's wrong? Did your latest targets catch on before you could get far enough? You don't look hurt, so I'm guessing it must've been an invisible spell. Stomach ache, perhaps?

"I'm fine," the morose mage said. His blonde hair was limp, and all the energy seemed as if it had been sucked from Guiche de Gramont's . "Or at least, my body is. Alas, my heart seems to have been irreparably broken. Why does this world seem so muted, now? Has all colour died with it as well? If only I could grasp – mmph!" The sudden introduction of a piece of hard bread to his mouth stifled any further moping.

"You can always recapture that Montmorency girl later," Shinji said. "Right now, we need to focus on our immediate course of action. I won't have much time before the students' opinion of me solidifies, and I'll need your help to make sure that opinion isn't a negative one."

"I shouldn't even be talking to you," Guiche said after removing the bread from his teeth. "After yesterday's disgusting performance…"

"It was pretty good, wasn't it?"

"Good!?" Guiche glared at Shinji. "It was horrifying. We all saw you playing around, torturing the Zero. There's teasing, and then there's what we saw there. You went too far. You should have simply won and left it at that, but like this, you've made things even worse." Despite the anger in his words, he managed to keep it to a whisper.

"I know," said Shinji, still smiling. "A good performance, right?"

Guiche paused. "A… performance?"

"Of course. What, did you really think it was real?" Shinji carefully lay down the bait, knowing that Guiche would unfailingly jump into it. "I mean, the heart of a lady is fickle, isn't it? So a show like this wouldn't be out of the question if that's what my Master desired, right?"

And the trap closed.

"…tell me." The blonde boy asked. Even his friends, who had previously been trying to keep themselves out of it, couldn't resist listening in.

"What do you mean by performance?" A chubby boy Shinji remembered as Malicorne asked.

"Heh."

Hook.

"Well, come closer and I might let the secret slip." With those words, the boys crowded around Shinji, eager to hear what he was about to say.

Line.

"I'll tell you," Shinji whispered. "A story of a girl called-."

"…for someone as picky as you I could dress up in guy's clothing and you'd mistake me for Guiche, if that's what you're after!"

Sinke- wait what?

Guiche stuck his head out of the huddle and yelled in the general direction of the argument happening on the opposite side of the hall. "I resent that!"

Shinji grabbed a fist full of frill and dragged the boy back into the huddle.

"As I was saying!" He glared at Guiche, but the boy unapologetically stared back at Shinji without an ounce of guilt for ruining the Matou's carefully built atmosphere. "Whatever." Shinji gave up. "Long story short, the entire duel was rigged."

"Rigged?" Several of the boys echoed the words like unruly parrots. "What do you mean?"

"You don't get it, huh." Shinji shook his head, a smile creeping up on his face. "Well, I guess your fancy concepts of honour and chivalry would make it hard for you to understand. I suppose I'll have to spell it all out for you. I planned the whole thing, from start to finish."

Guiche was the first to understand. "So… you never actually fought each other? You lost on purpose is what you're saying?"

"Precisely," said Shinji. "I made it look good for the crowd, but in reality the decision was made from the start. I lost on purpose. No, I did even more than that. I antagonized her so that she'd challenge me, and then I lost on purpose after making myself look like a horrible person."

"That's ridiculous," one of the other boys piped up. "We were all there. You can't say you were expecting to be stabbed by an exploding wall. I'm pretty sure you cried for a few seconds."

"A necessary sacrifice," Shinji said, rubbing the bandaged wound on his arm. "It was only to prove to the audience that the duel was legitimate. Unless you're really saying my Master could've missed that many times in a row just to score a lucky hit?"

"I dunno…" despite their doubts, Shinji saw the crowd being won over. Most of the boys were on the verge of accepting his tale. They just needed a small push.

"Gentlemen," said Shinji. "We are all noble men, are we not? Don't we all know how delicate the hearts of women are?"

He received blank looks in reply, and, realizing that the dissonance in moral values that he'd expected didn't actually apply, quickly changed tactics. "What I mean to say is that we are expected to behave with a certain measure of chivalry and respect towards the fairer sex, much like a certain someone here. Right, Guiche?"

Taken aback at suddenly being put on a pedestal, the blonde boy could only nod weakly.

"A familiar must always be devoted to his Master, or in my case, Mistress," Shinji continued. "And, seeing how much of a failure at magic Miss Valliere is…"

The sudden mention of Louise's name brought the enthralled audience back to earth.

"The Zero?"

"Y-Yeah, right, we're talking about the Zero."

"She… sucks. That's it. Yeah."

Shinji's face was set in stone. "I cannot not bear it. This ill treatment of my Mistress is something I won't stand for. No one should insult her-."

"But aren't you badmouthing her right now?" Guiche ventured.

"Except for me," the other boy finished. "So I hatched this plan, without her knowledge, to boost her ranking in the eyes of the Academy and students. I had hoped being the victor of a duel would propel my…" He paused then, disgust showing on his face, but soldiered on. "…my unfortunate Master to higher social standing here. Since I needed her to win, I was the only one who could duel her. Anyone else would've simply won without hesitation, so I had no choice but to sacrifice my own body and reputation for my Mistress's happiness."

To a man, there was silence. Guiche looked like he wanted to say something, but held his tongue. The rest of the boys were enthralled. At sixteen, Shinji's words were like something out of a story book. Loyalty, self sacrifice, a spicy secret, all of the ingredients had been perfectly mixed together to form a perfect story for the perfect audience.

Malicorne was the first to break the silence. "That's amazing!"

As one, the others started talking all at once, each one displaying approval for Shinji's selfless act.

"You're awesome, man!"

"The Zero's wasted on a familiar as good as you!"

"Truly a Noble act!"

"So brave."

All of them except for one, who merely kept his mouth shut without speaking a single word. He knew instinctively that his protest wouldn't be enough to break the hold that Shinji's speech had created over the hearts of the gullible, foolish people around him. He had almost believed the story himself, but prior exposure to Shinji's true attitude had prepared him for the lie, and he'd just barely noticed it. Perhaps if he'd interrupted earlier…

Shinji waited until the words of praise died down to speak again, enjoying and soaking in his metaphorical victory. He stared each of the boys in the eye, making sure to convey to them that he knew of and acknowledged their existence. It was important that they saw him both as something to admire and as one of them.

"Friends," he said quietly. "I tell this to you now because of my own weakness. I spoke mere seconds ago of the great duty I aspired to fulfill, but alas; I am too feeble to accomplish it."

The energy died down, and whispers of confusion began to circulate around the circle. Shinji allowed them to run amok for a few more seconds before continuing.

He said, "I am unable to completely discard my sense of honesty, my wish to be accepted. You, my friends, I cannot lie to. Because of my own failing I told you this terrible secret, and because of that, I must beg for something from each of you: do not spread this story."

He twisted his face into a grimace of pain, inwardly congratulating himself as he spoke. "Don't tell those who do not know. Don't confide in others this shameful forgery of mine. I wish them to love my Master as I worshipped her from the moment we met, so please, do not allow this pathetic lie of mine to be torn apart. This, my selfishness, I ask of you, the only ones I can trust."

It shouldn't have worked. By all rights, the melodramatic, unrealistic performance should have been laughed off. If the group had been smaller, if they had known Shinji a little better, if Louise the Zero wasn't such a well known figure, Shinji's tall tale would never have left the ground. There were too many coincidences, too much dramatization, and if anyone with an ounce of brainpower had taken a moment to think it through they would've realized that the boy's tale and goal were mutually contradictory and full of holes. But it did work. Spun by someone well versed in the operation of teenage minds, someone who had singlehandedly climbed to the top of his school's social ladder, the tale had penetrated the hearts and souls of the gullible fools who heard it.

"I'll keep it a secret!"

"No one will know!"

"I'll just tell a few of my friends…"

As he basked in the promises and adoration of his new underclassmen, Shinji knew that he had won. Perhaps it hadn't been a direct victory, and true, some compromises had been made, but that didn't matter. His ultimate goal of raising his esteem and lowering Louise's had been reached. Within hours the false story would circulate around the academy, and the foolish children would believe it without question. He would be regarded as a just, noble, and heroic figure, all without having lifted a finger.

But the one person who hadn't been nearly as affected by the story did not escape Shinji's notice. "Friends, I must go now," he said as he stood. "I'll be going to ask a teacher to heal my wound with some magic. Do continue eating without me, and remember: No one can know."

He walked confidently out of the entrance hall, and many eyes followed him the entire way. It had been only a few days, but he was already the most interesting new development the academy had seen in years. It didn't escape Shinji's notice that Louise had left, but he paid the development no mind.

After leaving, Shinji glanced towards the direction of the sleeping familiars. He considered an idea for a moment, but decided against it. Instead, he entered the academy proper, making sure to walk slowly and without much purpose. After turning a few corners…

"You can come out now. I know you're there." Shinji didn't turn around, but was rewarded by the sound of shuffling feet and fine cloth behind him, followed by a familiar voice.

"You… you lied to them," Guiche said, sounding unsure of himself. The boy's usually bombastic voice had quieted, and it was plain to see that he was unused to confronting men about things. "No, you lied to us."

Shinji shrugged. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," he said. "Shouldn't you be heading off to class?" he added. "I have nothing to learn here, but someone like you would benefit from paying a bit more attention."

"I have half an hour," said Guiche. "More than enough time for you to explain what you just did back there."

"Nothing to explain," repeated Shinji, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You heard everything yourself, didn't you? Why don't you go back to your friends and talk about what a generous, gracious person I am?" There was an edge to his words, but Guiche either didn't notice it or chose not to.

He began to speak. "I'm not an idiot-."

"You are." Suddenly, Shinji's face twisted again, revealing the rage he'd been hiding the entire time. "You're a fool, and so is everyone here! Nobles? Magi? Don't make me laugh! With those attitudes, you're more like children playing make believe! This academy's existence shames the very idea of magecraft. A magus is supposed to walk with death! A magus is supposed to dedicate his entire life to reaching the Root of Creation, not screw around in a medieval version of Hogwarts worrying about who's dating who! That morons like you could use magic while I… I… forget it." He sneered. "I've don't have to deal with you anymore. That's all that matters."

Guiche trembled. Some part of him recognized that he'd just been insulted, but the rest of his mind was too preoccupied with trying to explain Shinji's sudden change in behavior. "If we're such fools, then why did you even talk to us!? Yesterday you weren't… you weren't like this."

"Heh. It's called acting. I'd think someone like you would recognize a few lies. I didn't want to resort to this, but that girl getting lucky and winning forced me to act," Shinji said. He put his hands in his pockets and looked at the frilly shirt he was wearing. "Thanks, by the way. You have crappy fashion sense, but at thanks to you I'm not stuck wearing that pile of rags I came here with. You're just like the rest of the kids here, but you were useful to me. So in return, I'll let you in on a little secret."

He took a few steps towards the blonde boy, and Guiche suddenly found his heart beating wildly. He was nervous, there was no question about it. But why? Why would he ever have to fear someone who'd lost to the Zero of all people?

Shinji stared Guiche in the eye, their faces only inches apart. "All of this? This academy? This world? It's all a joke. I've seen things you've only imagined in nightmares. This 'school' full of kids waving around wands would never exist in my world. People like you would be eaten for breakfast. At first I thought that this place was my personal hell, but now I realize that it's heaven. This is what I wished for. A world full of idiots, where I'm the only one who knows what he's doing. So go on, play around with your little dates and high school drama. I'll be busy getting to the top. And if you presume to try and stop me… well, you've a got a few more brain cells in that empty head of yours than the rest of these dolts. I'll leave it to your imagination."

Having finished, Shinji removed the charred book that served as his focus from his pocket, flipping it open and holding it with one hand. He glanced at the unreadable text within and back to Guiche, before apparently deciding it wasn't worth it. Instead, Shinji walked right by Guiche, who was too frozen to move. The boy didn't understand half of what Shinji had said, but the other half had been clear enough. A part of his mind told him to respond, to challenge the older boy to a duel. But another told him to stay away, to let Matou Shinji do as he wished and hope that he could survive the fallout.

Shinji's low chuckle eventually faded away along with the sound of footsteps, and it was only then that Guiche allowed himself to relax, which in this situation meant 'collapse against a wall and start hyperventilating'. The combination of realizing that he'd been completely used, and the chilling knowledge that Louise the Zero's familiar was more dangerous than the Zero herself left the boy unable to move. Or perhaps it had been Shinji's unseen magic draining his vitality. Either way, Guiche felt all the strength leave his body.

He stayed there for what felt like hours, but could just as easily have been seconds, before a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Um… are you all right, sir?"

He looked up.

The maid in front of him bent down and looked at Guiche with something approaching worry. "Is something the matter?" she asked. "Sorry for interrupting, but you don't look so good. Should I fetch you some water?" Idly, Guiche noticed that she was trembling as she spoke. Probably because she was obviously a commoner, and could be punished for her presumptuous actions. There she was, just a common maid, yet she'd had the courage to speak to him. But he'd balked against a boy who was on the same level as him, like some kind of coward.

"I… I'm fine," Guiche said. He clenched his fists and pushed himself from the wall, standing unsteadily. "There is no need for your interference, maid." Despite that, he felt himself stumble just as he was about to regain his balance. With quick, practiced movements the freckled maid moved in front of the weak Noble, supporting him and preventing him from falling.

Almost immediately she realized her mistake and retreated, bowing profusely. "I'm sorry, Mr. Gramont!" she apologized. "I didn't… I mean-."

"It's fine," Guiche murmered. He glanced at the maid. Her face seemed slightly familiar. She was just a commoner, but… "You brought us food this morning, didn't you?"

She nodded nervously. "Y-Yes, Mr. Gramont. Again, I'm sorry for-."

"I said it's fine," the boy snapped, and she flinched. With a sigh, Guiche forced his anger back. There was no reason to take it out on some commoner that had nothing to do with anything. He needed to think of how to handle the Shinji matter, not spend timing coming up with ways to punish the maids.

"Should I call your friend?" the maid asked. "I heard him leave a few minutes ago, but he might still be around."

Guiche's trembling stopped. He looked at the girl again. Was it possible…? "Did you," he paused. "Did you hear our conversation earlier?"

She went pale. "I, um, well, I was just bringing the empty plates to the kitchen and-. I didn't mean to, sir! Please don't make me disappear!"

Guiche shook his head. "I'm not going to make you disappear. Just…" He sighed, and forced out a smile. Well, even a wild rose could be useful at points. "Could you get me that cup of water?"

"Right away!" With a quick nod, the girl scarpered off, glad to be alive. Guiche let himself slide down, sitting with his back against the wall as strength slowly returned to his limbs. He frowned.

"Tch. I dislike being tricked." His hypocritical words were spoken without a trace of guilt. In the first place, Guiche had never considered his two timing wrong, so there was nothing to regret. But what Shinji had done wasn't something the boy could forgive. No, more than that, it was something the pride of the Gramonts couldn't allow.

Guiche smiled to himself, and this time he didn't have to force it.

"Very well then, Matou Shinji. Since you've chosen to make an enemy out of me, I'll have to show you the power of this bronze rose's thorns."

Around the hall's corner, unnoticed by both the rushing Siesta or the weary Guiche, stood a short, balding wizard. He leaned against the wall, his cloak hiding the expression on his face. But if anyone was to look underneath his hood, they'd see Professor Colbert wearing an expression that could only belong to a hardened soldier.

* * *

The sun was in the middle of sinking below the horizon when Shinji opened the door to Louise's room. Unlike before, there was no longer a bandage on his arm. He carried a cloth bag with various clothes and toiletries he'd scrounged from the other students, and overall he had the air of one who was satisfied with the day's work. He turned and closed the door behind him, and made his way to the bed he'd been given.

"What were you doing all day?"

He turned. Louise was lying on her bed, eyes open and staring at the ceiling. She was already in her pajamas, having apparently dressed herself this time. The dirt on her face was gone, leaving her shortened hair to be the only remaining mark of her duel.

"Stuff," Shinji said. He placed the bag at the side of his bed and began pulling out various articles of clothing before promptly replacing them. "Since I have no obligation to go to your classes, I busied myself with things that are more important. None of it's your business, anyway."

"You're my familiar," was the reply. "Everything you do should be my business."

After a few moments, Shinji pulled out a fancy nightwear outfit and looked at it with disgust on his face. "Not likely," he said as he started to pull off his shirt. "I'm not a proper familiar, and you're not a proper Master."

"I'm doing my best." Louise whispered at a volume too low for Shinji to notice. And she was. Unlike her usual performance, she hadn't messed up once. She'd finished the ritual properly, and treated her familiar with more than enough respect. She was sure that, had anyone else summoned Shinji, they'd have failed to restrain the unruly boy. But she'd succeeded, even if only partially. That itself was something to be proud of.

Despite her inner thoughts, the only reaction Louise showed to Shinji undressing was sliding her eye lids forward. When she wasn't talking, she looked almost like a sleeping princess from a fairy tale. "But if it affects me, I have a right to know." Her next words were significantly louder.

"Heh." After pulling on the slightly too small top, Shinji folded up his old clothes and stuffed them in the bag. "I'll need a dresser tomorrow," he said. "And there's nothing about me that can affect you. I'm from another world, remember?"

"I'm starting to doubt that, actually. If you were summoned here, couldn't someone else from your world show up as well?"

"Hm." Shinji paused in his rummaging. For once, he appeared worried. But even that soon faded. "There's no evidence to prove that," he said. "If someone else does show up, it's likely that they'll be unable to use magic. I don't have to worry about it. What's with all the nosiness anyway? Shouldn't you be more worried about fixing your hair or casting spells properly?"

"A familiar's business is his Master's business," protested Louise, sitting up on her bed and frowning. "You may be rude, selfish, inconsiderate, unwanted, belligerent, and slimy, but you're still my familiar, and it's my job to make sure nothing happens to you! Besides, this isn't your world. You don't know how things work here! I don't know how you've managed not to mess up so far, but do you really expect to survive this place without anyone's aid?"

"Nobody asked for your help!" Shinji's retort was instantaneous. "I'll do as I like, and I can take care of myself perfectly! Just don't get in my way."

"Gr… fine! I don't care." Louise suppressed her anger and closed her eyes. Stupid familiar. He had absolutely no idea the danger he was in or the enemies he'd made without even realizing. Let him fall, then. It would only help her if he wound up dead. "Go to sleep already," she said. "Maybe you'll be more inclined to listen tomorrow."

But still… the conversation she'd had with Kirche that morning wouldn't leave her mind. If it wasn't for the deadly seriousness with which Kirche had spoken, Louise wouldn't have believed her. But those words had been true, and just as frightening several hours later as they had been hours earlier. She knew that she couldn't ignore them, but there was nothing she could do in response to her new found knowledge except hope that she never had to use it.

As both Master and Familiar let sleep envelop their worn bodies, each thought of different things.

Louise wondered about the name 'Einzbern' and all the significance it held. Newly learned facts rushed through her mind, connecting with what little she knew about Shinji. Her dreams were dominated by speculations and half formed theories, each one more improbable than the last. Hatred and concern warred as the subject of her dreams turned to Shinji, and the daughter of Valliere wondered how her mother or sisters would've handled the problem. She found no answer that night, and wouldn't for many more.

Shinji, on the other hand, initially dreamt of nothing, just as he had the previous few days. It was believable, of course. His body and mind had been too weary to dream, and the only sleep he'd been able to grasp was short and painful. But the previous night's insomnia had already caught up to him. The land of dreams beckoned, and he could no longer escape it.

He'd placed his precious charred book in his breast pocket, and through a small hole in the fabric of his night shirt it touched Shinji's skin. Even if it was only faint, a connection formed, enhanced through unconsciousness. A connection stretching across time and space, across the barriers between worlds, and the barriers between hearts.

Shinji dreamt of screams. Of pain everywhere. He dreamt of hunger, and lust, and regrets. Of a disappointed grandfather and a War halted by errors beyond the comprehension of its original creators. He dreamt of a respite to the pain, of meetings with a brilliant light that illuminated the darkness, yet made it even more frightening and painful. He dreamt of happiness, and sadness, and a youth that promised no future.

Those images formed merely half of the fractured kaleidoscopic mess of his dreams.

The other half were even worse.

He dreamt of degradation. Of slow, ineffectual struggling through pain and fury and betrayal. He dreamt of an island, of a monotonous life interrupted solely by bright pinpricks of colour, each one wounding and painful until they were swallowed up by his anger and hatred. Again and again they came, each one more bright, until one last light showed up, this one too strong to be vanquished.

He battled with the light again and again, striking at it with bestial claws while it brandished weapons forged by the Gods themselves. As they fought, the images became clearer, until, with a start, Shinji realized that he could see, just in time for his opponent to slash with a deadly scythe, ripping through flesh, bones, and scales.

He tumbled, spinning through the air. Glimpses of scaled tentacles that had once been part of his body, stone ruins that had once been a brilliant temple, and the warrior's boots came to him in quick succession. The Bloodfort that had covered the battles fell, and the crimson tint that had been there the entire time vanished, plunging the world into perfect view.

Shinji stared, unmoving, as the warrior knelt before him. Portions of the man's bronzed physique appeared to be made of stone, but before his eyes the rock was replaced by flesh. Powerful hands reached down and lifted his head from the floor, bringing him up to see the man who had killed him.

"You were a formidable, opponent, monster." The voice that spoke was both familiar and not, and simultaneously Japanese and Greek. Shinji had no problem understanding it. "But at least, this annoying battle is over. I wonder…"

The man raised Shinji's head and looked at him face to face, living to dead, eyes to eye.

"Does this make me a Hero?"

Shinji stared at his grinning reflection and wished he could still scream.


	7. Chapter 7: The Aristocrats

"How do I look?"

"You're a kid in a dress."

"How do I look, familiar?"

Shinji sighed. "Beautiful, mistress. The pink matches with that ridiculous hair of yours, and those most definitely not fake gems bring out the colour in your eyes perfectly." Flowery words, completely deadpan delivery.

Louise accepted that it was the best she'd every get out of him, and nodded. "Good. I see you've managed to control that ridiculous fashion sense of yours. You should do that more often. It might make your presence easier to bear."

Shinji adjusted the uncomfortably tight collar of his navy dress shirt. He preferred more modern clothing, but the people of Halkeginia had no idea what jeans were, so it was either walk around being laughed at or adjust, which according to Louise meant wearing three different layers of clothes at all times. The robe on his back was apparently crafted by a master tailor, but all it afforded Shinji was a stifling heaviness that made every breath an effort.

"It's just for the next few days," whispered Louise, as if reading his mind. "Just while the princess and her entourage are here. Afterwards you can go back to that black and white abomination you call fashion. Really, I don't understand how you could wear that thing to the ball with a straight face."

"That was a week ago!" Shinji protested. "And for your information, I got tons of offers to dance, so obviously I was doing something right!"

"A pretty face is all you've got going for you. You just got lucky that most of the girls here fall for that sort of stuff easily. They're probably just curious about that weird foreigner who supposedly drove off a 50 foot stone golem."

"No one needs to know that it walked away on its own! Besides, you're the weird ones," Shinji mumbled, looking over the assembled crowd of students and teachers waiting in perfect rows. Osmond waited at the front, right in front of the gate. Even he looked nervous as he waited to receive the guests. "Why get so worked up about some royal brat showing up to wave and smile for a few minutes?"

The sudden appearance of a sharp elbow in his gut caught Shinji by surprise, and he almost collapsed from Louise's unexpected strength. It was only the long cane in his hands that arrested his downward momentum in time to keep him from hitting the floor and ruining his cloak.

"What was that for!?" His enraged whisper was loud by normal standards, but Louise was the only one who bothered to hear it among the buzz created by the crowd of impatient students.

"Don't insult Her Majesty," she said, frowning. "I'm serious. In fact, that's your order for today. Not a single bad word concerning the princess. If I so much as hear you comment unfavorably on her dress, you're going to wish you'd kept your mouth shut." Any observer could tell that she was close to getting angry. Shinji knew as well, and chose to ignore it, as always.

"Oh wow," Shini snickered. "You're almost cute when you get angry like that, Master."

"Grr… shut up!"

It had been two weeks since the summoning, and to Louise, Matou Shinji was still as annoying as ever, if slightly more tolerable. He'd done away with the blatant hatred, but replaced it with an even more irritating routine involving a combination of false sincerity, passive aggressiveness, and subtle manipulation, not to mention some of the most backhanded insults she'd ever seen. If someone else had been the target, she might've admired the effort that must've gone into maintaining such behaviour, but all she could do as his Master was make the most of her position, using her orders to inconvenience her familiar as much as possible, preferably in front of the rest of the male students, who'd taken to worshipping him as some kind of idol.

Shinji's sudden popularity among the students in her academy hadn't been as much of a surprise to her as she had thought it would be. His was the kind of personality suited to charming the masses, and the air of mystery his status as a foreigner gave him only helped. Even her win against him hadn't managed to shake his reputation. On the contrary, it had soared instead. If Louise actually cared, she might've been worried. Instead, she was just glad that the student body had decided to leave her alone for the most part.

"I still don't get it," Shinji said, ruining her focus. "Why is that princess of yours here anyway?"

"I already told you," Louise said, still grumpy from before. "She's returning from a visit to that barbaric country. Why she picked Germania of all places… no, no. It's not my place to question Her Majesty's decisions."

"It's probably political, whatever the reason," her familiar said, already bored by the whole thing. "You guys are still using that backwards feudal system, right? In our world, when people were still that dumb, royals would only go to other countries for diplomatic purposes. If Tristain sent a princess instead of some other diplomat, it must've been a proposal for a political marriage."

"As if! Don't air out any more of your ridiculous ideas, familiar. And don't you dare imply that the princess would ever stoop to marrying a barbarian."

"You already gave me today's order," Louise's familiar said. "So I think I'll just keep on making fun of this backwards society of yours. Besides, you never told my why she decided to stop here of all places. What could possibly interest a Queen-to-be in a dingy academy for mages?"

Louise said nothing. She was so irritated at this point that had she not been in public she would've blown Shinji to the moon without hesitation, promise or no promise. As it was, she couldn't afford to disturb the princess's arrival, so she kept her mouth shut and decided that ignoring her familiar was the worst punishment she could deal him.

Moments later, two large, majestic carriages arrived, barely squeaking through the Academy gates. The first one, adorned with gold and intricate carvings, stopped in front of Osmond, who was visibly sweating in the sun.

"Her Royal Highness of the Kingdom of Tristain, Princess Henrietta has arrived." a loud voice proclaimed.

The whole student body seemed to hold its breath as a servant opened the door and a single hand reached out from within.

While most were disappointed when the occupant was revealed to be some fat old person in a stupid fancy outfit, Shinji snickered and tried not to laugh out loud. Osmond received the man, who was likely some minister or important official, and the carriage quickly moved out of the way for a second one. This one was smaller, and drawn by…

"Are those unicorns?" Shinji asked. By the tone of his voice Louise could tell he was either disgusted or impressed.

"Yes." She decided that there was no harm in replying. "By legend, only the purest of maidens may ride one, so that means…"

The dainty, dark haired girl who stepped out of the second carriage was met with roaring applause, unlike the first man's lukewarm welcome. Students screamed, some cried, several cheered, and Louise was certain she heard Guiche confess his love from the other side of the courtyard. Even Shinji had been momentarily entranced, just like his Master. The Princess waved at the crowd, flashing a winning smile that only caused the cheers to strengthen.

"Hmph. That's the Princess of Tristain? Even I'm better looking than that." From behind Louise, Kirche complained.

"Quiet." Both Master and Familiar replied at the same time.

After waving and smiling for a few more seconds, Henrietta presented a hand to Osmond, who took it and bowed deeply. They exchanged a few words that no one could hear. Henriette chuckled, and Osmond nodded with a smile on his face as well, before being dragged off by the minister from before. Shaking her head, Longueville separated herself from the crowd and followed the two old men, smoothly guiding them into the Academy proper with practiced motions.

It was only after the minor commotion that Shinji noticed the black cloaks. Dozens of people had entered along with the carriages, each one wearing an almost identical black cloak. They all rode, whether on horses or an assortment of vicious magical beasts. Shinji spotted a griffin, a horse with large tusks, and what might've been a dinosaur at first glance. "The Imperial Guards…" Kirche suddenly sighed. "How romantic."

Romantic or not, they seemed to be taking their job seriously. Each mage scanned the crowds, trying to pinpoint if anyone there was a danger to their princess. Several muttered silent spells and gazed at the windows of the academy, where curious maids and staff quickly ducked out of the way lest they be struck by some manner of horrific curse.

"Doesn't look like the commoners see it your way," Shinji said, but there was no reply from Kirche, who was busy begging Tabitha to conjure a block of ice for her to stand on.

"Tch, idiot." Shinji turned to Louise to see if she would be any better conversation, but found her similarly occupied. She stared at the Imperial Guards, specifically the man riding the griffin. Shinji made out long pale hair and a beard, as well as a regal bearing. He grinned. His Master had a crush on some old guy? So she was a girl after all…

What happened next seemed like pure coincidence. If not for that one freak occurrence, the events that would later occur might not have happened. Shinji would later try to think of where things started to change, and would inevitably arrive at the conclusion that it had been there, at that very moment, that his destiny, and the fate of two worlds, shifted.

Perhaps it had been the whim of nature. Perhaps the sudden opening of the gates had created a draft. Or perhaps it had been on purpose, and the incident was deliberately engineered. Either way, regardless of the cause, the effect the slight gust of wind created was impossible to ignore.

Among the black cloaked guards there was one other. The person had blended in almost perfectly, with a dark cloak and pure white horse, looking just like the rest. But the hood of the person's cloak had been pulled up, obscuring their face completely. Unlike the rest of the proud nobles who didn't hesitate for a moment to show off their power and grace, there was one who took care to keep themselves out of notice and out of view.

And then a breeze appeared and blew the hood down.

Shinji's eyes naturally gravitated to the sudden introduction of new colour. He wasn't as interested in the princess as the rest of the students, so he was one of the few to notice. But that was enough. The split second glance he got was all Shinji needed to recognize the person underneath the hood. After all, how many people could there be in Halkeginia with white hair, pale skin, and red eyes?

The stranger glanced around and pulled up the hood, but not before catching Shinji's eye, all the way across the courtyard. Somehow he had been picked out among the hundreds of students. Their eyes met for a second, and then the hood was up and the rider turned away, leaving the visitor from another world shivering in fright.

* * *

"It's got to be a coincidence," Shinji muttered.

Six paces left, six paces right.

"No fucking way she could've followed me here."

Six paces left, six paces right.

"And why the hell was she all grown up like that?"

Six left, six right. Shinji looked up and paused, as if expecting a giant muscled man to bust through the stone wall and bludgeon him to death.

"Dammit, this makes no sense! Oy, Valliere, you got an explanation for this?"

No response. Shinji stopped pacing and levelled his glare towards his Master.

She sat on her bed, knees drawn up and hands clasped around them, staring blankly at the door. Her pajamas were on, but she hadn't even attempted to sleep.

"Hey. I'm talking to you."

Louise didn't react to his voice. She didn't do much of anything, really.

Shinji frowned. He wasn't the kind of person who enjoyed repeating himself outside of demeaning lectures, and he wasn't about to let his Master off just because she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to reply.

He walked over and yanked on her shortened hair. Nothing. He pulled her ears. Still nothing. Even after flicking Louise's forehead and tweaking her nose, the girl didn't move. Shinji licked his finger and was about to insert it somewhere it should never be when he heard two long knocks on the door.

"You gonna get that?"

The knocking came again, this time as three sharp raps.

Suddenly, without any explanation, Louise stood. She brushed aside Shinji's hand and marched to the door, pulling it open without hesitation.

The short, cloaked figure that stood in the doorway gave Shinji pause as he remembered the Einzbern from earlier, but Louise was shocked for a different reason that he couldn't quite see.

"…is it you?" She asked at a whisper.

The hooded figure responded by bringing a finger to its invisible lips and pushing past Louise to enter the room. Shinji started to rise, but calmed down when he caught a glimpse of dark hair rather than white. Before he could say anything, the cloaked visitor raised a small staff and waved it about, producing a sprinkling of powder that glittered and dissolved into the air. As it did so, the sounds of crickets chirping and winds blowing from outside faded away.

"A silencing spell?" Louise asked.

"We're almost certainly being watched," the girl under the hood replied. "There are prying eyes about, and I don't want them looking into personal business."

"…personal business?"

The girl lowered her hood, revealing a familiar face and smile. "It's been too long, Valliere."

"Y-Y-Your Highness!" At a loss for words, Louise settled for stating the obvious! "H-Here in my room!?"

Henrietta giggled at the smaller girl's nervousness before sweeping up Louise into a hug. "Oh, how I've wanted to see you, my friend!"

"F-Friend?"

"Oh, remember how we used to play together as children, or how we annoyed Laporte the chamberlain by playing in the mud and getting our clothes dirty?"

Shinji missed television. He really did. Of the things he missed the most after being summoned to Halkeginia, television was definitely in the top five. He didn't miss school, or seeing Tohsaka every day. That, he could live without, even if those thigh highs had been heavenly to look at. He didn't miss Sakura or his grandfather either. In fact, he was glad to be rid of him. But television had been his friend since childhood. Specifically, reality TV shows and comedy.

He had to admit, though, that sometimes life is stranger than fiction. As he watched a princess and a bratty half pint, once childhood friends but cruelly separated for years, reunited at last, he felt a twinge of satisfaction that only episodes of Jersey Shore could normally bring about. When Louise started stammering generic pleasantries while Henrietta insisted on their conversation being casual, a smile appeared on his face. As Henrietta began, to Louise's embarrassment, to recall even more embarrassing childhood memories and speak them out loud, he suppressed a chuckle.

But when Henrietta started talking about their play fights and Louise relaxed just enough to join in, he couldn't take it anymore. There was no fun in it if his Master was enjoying herself.

He coughed, loudly and pointedly from his seat on his bed. Henrietta and Louise stopped laughing and looked his way, one surprised and one annoyed.

"Sorry for the interruption, Your Majesty," he said loudly and sarcastically, enjoying how the monarch cringed at the noise despite the silencing spell. "Forgive an uneducated foreigner for not knowing the traditions of the Tristainian monarchy, but aren't you supposed to be in some kind of suite being guarded by half a regiment of royal knights? I'd hardly call this place fitting for your most esteemed self."

Henrietta opened her mouth to reply, but Louise got there first. Shinji ducked, and the cobblestone above his head cracked audibly from the force of his angry Master's spell.

"My apologies, Your Highness," she said, stepping in front of Shinji and dragging the amused boy to his feet. "This is my familiar, and as you can see, he is from another country, one with a decidedly crude culture. Please forgive his lack of respect towards you. I'll make sure he's _heavily_ reprimanded for his behavior. But first he's going to apologize. Right, familiar?"

Shinji crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling.

"_Right_, familiar?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine." Shinji turned to Henrietta and bowed, though not very deeply. "I'm sorry for offending your honor, Your Highness. Be sure that the next time someone does so, you'll have this girl, a paragon of virtue and extraordinarily powerful magus, to protect you when your guards and royal training fail."

Louise fumed, but Henrietta's soft giggle distracted her from thoughts of punishing her uppity familiar. "It's fine," the princess said, smiling. "Actually, that was quite a refreshing sentence. You say that your familiar is a human and a foreigner, Louise? Then let us have him speak to us of his home, at a better time. For now…" Henrietta glanced at, Shinji, and then looked at Louise. "No, never mind. A mage and her familiar as one. If I tell you, he might as well know too."

"Princess?" Louise asked. "What are you talking about?"

"You must promise not to tell anyone," Henrietta said quickly. Give me your word. You are the last person I can trust, and I need to know if you are prepared to carry this secret."

"To the grave!" cried the blonde mage. "What is it?"

"I…" Henrietta paused.

"You're getting married," Shinji's bored voice sliced through the tension. The boy loosed his hand from Louise's grip and walked to the stunned Princess. He knelt before her and took her hand, ignoring his Master's vocal protest.

"That ring looks expensive," he said, spying the large gem embedded in the ring on her right hand. "Did the King of Germania give it to you?"

Henrietta took a step back, withdrawing her hand as she did so. Her face was pale, and it immediately became obvious that Shinji's guess had been right on the money, or at least close enough.

"This ring was from my mother," Henrietta whispered, clasping her right hand with her left. "And no, I am not marrying the King of Germania, familiar." Her previously warm words had become cold.

"So it's another noble, then?" Shinji rose and deflected Louise's attempts to whack his head with her staff. "Gotta be from Germania, though, right?"

"Who I am betrothed to is of no concern to you!" The Princess said. She took a few breaths in the silence that followed her sudden words, and then started to speak again, more calmly this time. "But yes, this marriage involves Germania. That is all you need to know for the moment. Louise, could you…?"

"Gladly." growled Louise. But Shinji surrendered almost immediately, walking back to his bed and jumping on it, reclining on his pillows like a King who had everything.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, grinning. "I'll shut up now, honest. But that can't have been it, right? I mean, if I could guess just from looking at you then it can't be much of a secret, can it?"

"That's not it," Henrietta murmured. Louise went to her friend, putting an arm around the princess's drooping shoulders and guiding her to the other bed.

"Should I order some tea?" The blonde asked. "I could get my familiar to fetch some."

"…thank you," Henrietta nodded. "Actually, yes, that would be preferable."

"Shinji. Get to it."

The boy grumbled, but relented. He got up and opened the door, shooting one last sour look at Louise before exiting the room.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, all sounds of the conversation within vanished, save for the audible click of tumblers turning as Louise locked Shinji out, leaving him free to loudly curse without her hearing. He went down a few corridors before judging himself to be far enough away, and then loosed his anger.

A few sore toes and muttered insults later, Shinji rounded another corner significantly more relaxed, but still frowning. He stopped in the middle of a hall with a few open windows, breathing in the fresh air and sound of nature. Instead of enjoying the beautiful night, he instead leaned against the outside wall, staring blankly at the rows of identical doors and torches that lined the other wall.

As he reflected, Shinji admitted to himself that it would probably have been better to speak to the Princess with a bit more respect. As primitive as the people of Halkeginia were, he wasn't powerful enough to talk casually to the leader of a nation without escaping wrath. The Henrietta girl was nothing special, but the knights she commanded probably were, and he'd just lost his chance to get in on whatever juicy secret she had. Shinji slammed his hand against the wall and winced as it hurt him. If it had been a Servant, the wall would be broken instead of his flesh. But there were no Servants, no Rider to dispatch his enemies. Just him and his magic.

As to Louise's request, Shinji didn't even give it an attempt. Most of the castle servants went to sleep at the same time as the children, save those assigned to clean the castle and prepare it for the coming morning. The kitchen staff was not going to get up in the middle of the night to make some tea for a brat. Besides, the request had only been to get him out of the way. Despite her earlier statements, the royal bitch didn't trust him one bit.

As his thoughts became darker, it never occurred to Shinji that Henrietta's mistrust of him was completely his own fault.

"A beautiful night, is it not?"

Startled, Shinji slipped on a too smooth floor tile and found himself careening towards the ground. A strong hand grabbed his arm, steadying the boy and pulling him up easily.

"Careful there. It wouldn't do to have a Noble sustain injuries in such an embarrassing way."

Shinji looked at his rescuer. The man had long, faded hair that was thankfully nowhere near the Einzbern's pure white, and a closely cropped beard and mustache. The Imperial Guard Louise had been staring at let go of Shinji and took a step backward, smiling easily.

"Thanks," ventured Shinji, out of politeness more than anything.

"It was but a trifle," the Guard replied. "I should be apologizing, rather. In this darkness I did not notice that you were deep in thought."

"Um, don't worry about it, really," slightly put off by the man's politeness and antiquated manner of speech, Shinji scrambled for something to say. When all else failed, he settled for going on the offensive. "I wasn't expecting to meet someone out here. Usually everyone would be asleep by now."

"And you don't count yourself as part of this 'everyone'?" the man asked. "You wear the uniform of a student, do you not? I'd think that you would be in bed as well."

Shinji shrugged and decided to go with the flow. If the guy wanted to talk like someone out of the Three Musketeers, then Shinji could play that game as well. "This is a perfect time to think in peace. As you said, the night is beautiful. To not take advantage of that would be a waste."

"A worthy reason," the man replied, his relaxed smile still untouched.

"For me, doubtless," Shinji said, and then pushed on. "But, and forgive me for asking, it isn't your reason for staying up late, is it, Mr. Imperial Guard?"

"Hmmm…" the man paused to think. "Well, I suppose not. But then again, I am not 'everyone' either. Those in our position must be ever vigilant when we need to protect our masters, even if it means forgoing some sleep. Isn't that right, Shinji Matou, familiar of Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière?"

Shinji's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

The man chuckled. "You are the talk of the school. I've scarcely been here half a day and I've already stories of your infamous activities. I'll admit that I was sceptical about the existence of a human familiar, but the few teachers I conversed with assured me that it was truth."

"Well, most of those stories are exaggerated," the boy replied, his mouth smiling but his eyes hard. "Then again, some aren't. But I'm at a disadvantage, _Sir_. You know my name and I do not know yours. If we are to continue speaking, wouldn't it be better to level the playing field in this regard?"

"On the contrary," the man said, "it is the opposite. A man in my position should shy away from students and not involve himself in their education. But since you are correct, I suppose I'll introduce myself. I am Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, captain of Her Highness' Griffin Knights."

"Wow." Shinji's response was that of only mild surprise. "So you're actually a bigwig, aren't you? Not bad."

"…I expected another reaction," the older man confessed, frowning slightly. "Most students here would have been much more… energetic after hearing my identity."

"Sorry, but I'm a difficult guy to impress," Shinji grinned. "But as for the students, it's natural since they're mostly children. A guy as observant as you should have already noticed that he has quite a few admirers here. Gramont was telling everyone about how he was going to ask for your autograph, and my Master was staring at you like you were made of solid gold."

"Ah, Louise? I'm glad to hear it. That she admires me only bodes well for our future. I should have been saddened if she hadn't spared her fiancé a single glance."

"…what?"

"She didn't tell you?" Wardes took off his hat, tucking it under his arm. "We are engaged to be married, she and I. I'd have thought that she would inform her familiar of that, but it appears I was mistaken."

"But… you're like 40 at least, and she's only 16."

Wardes raised an eyebrow. "Yes, and."

Shinji blinked. "…never mind, it's nothing at all. So when are you two gonna tie the knot?"

"That is yet to be decided," Wardes said, and Shinji noticed a hint of zeal enter the man's eyes. "But circumstances favor me. I haven't spoken to Louise in years, and this is a perfect chance to do so, since the Princess plans on staying here for at least two more nights. And for your information, I have yet to pass thirty years. Guessing someone's age is only acceptable when said guess is reasonably accurate or flattering."

Shinji wasn't really sure how to respond to that. In all honesty, if it had been concerning some other girl he wouldn't care at all. But he was stuck with Louise for the time being, and whatever concerned her also affected him in some way. So after learning that his bratty master was meant to be wed to some old guy who was also a Captain of some Royal Guard, Shinji settled for being confused. Still, confusion had never held him back for long.

"Anyway, I'll be going now," Wardes said. He placed his elaborate hat back on his head and turned his back to Shinji. "Patrolling is only successful if one doesn't stop to hold lengthy conversations with everyone he meets. I suggest going back to sleep. I feel that tomorrow will be a significant day." With those words he began to vanish into the darkness that had only partially been held at bay by the torches on the walls.

"…wait."

Wardes didn't stop walking, so Shinji followed him instead, stepping uncomfortably faster than his usual pace to keep up with the man's large strides.

"I can still speak, but I'm afraid that slowing down isn't an option," Louise's groom-to-be said. "If you have a question, then say it and I may answer."

They walked along the empty corridors for a minute before Shinji ventured to ask.

"Are you familiar with the names and faces of the Guard?"

"Of course," Wardes replied, his eyes fixed on the distance and not Shinji. "To prevent spies from infiltrating our ranks, I must be. I won't say that I know the names of every cadet or newcomer, but if someone has been with us, I will recognize their face at least."

"Is there…" Shinji hesitated again at the last second. "Does one of your soldiers possess white hair, red eyes, and pale skin?"

There was a small pause in Wardes' movement, but he almost immediately resumed his old pace, even quickening it by quite a bit, so much so that Shinji had to power walk to keep up.

"No," the man said after a few seconds. His voice was hard. "Such a person does not exist in the Imperial Guard, Griffin Knights, or even among the men-at-arms of the common army."

"…oh." Shinji relaxed, letting out a sigh.

"If you are looking for such a person," Wardes continued as they rounded a corner. "Then you should travel to Germania. If it's _those_ people you want, then you'll find plenty of them in that place."

Shinji stopped in the middle of the hall. "…what do you mean?"

Wardes continued walking for a few more steps before coming to a stop himself. He half turned, looking at Shinji with an unreadable expression. The boy could only see a single eye under the wide brim of the man's hat.

"Exacly what I said. Unless," Wardes murmured, almost too quietly for Shinji to hear. "You are asking about our… visitor. If that is the case, then I applaud your keen eyes. However, it's not my place to speak of such things. I may tell you of matters which everyone knows, and perhaps a little more, owing to my attachment to your Mistress. For that reason, I warn you that this matter is not something you should look into lightly."

He pulled down the hat, covering his eyes, and turned away, leaving only a handful of parting words.

"In Germania there is a saying that concerns the Einzberns: _Above All, Achieve_. In translation, woe be it to anyone who gets between an Einzbern and their Wish. Our visitor from Germania made it clear to us that he does not wish for his identity to be exposed to the public, and I will abide by his request. There is only a single person in this academy that can go against that Wish and survive unscathed, and it is not I."

"If you wish to know about Her Highness' fiancé, then you'll have to ask her yourself."


	8. Chapter 8: Forest of Fools

Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes did not think of himself as a frivolous man.

As a Noble, he was one of few given the privilege of magic. He could slice through rock with winds that could only be found on the highest peaks in the world, and summon up a gale powerful enough to send any opponent flying. He was rich, and would be able to live his life perfectly well simply by minding his own business, sitting in his manor, and occasionally making gestures of fealty towards the King. After a few years of service he could retire with full honours and spend the rest of his days doing anything he wished. In short, he could easily live the life of a Noble without much effort.

He found the idea revolting.

There was something wrong with that. With throwing away power that begged to be used. He wasn't the kind of man who could sit still and not take advantage of his gifts, however meagre they were. Even though he chose to carefully conceal it beneath a veneer of chivalry and discipline, a part of Wardes woke up every time he entered combat. The chill that ran down his spine when he grasped a sword or summoned up a spell wasn't something that could be brought about by debauchery and sloth. No, he could only satisfy the instinct by feeding it.

It was a shame, then, that he hadn't been able to do so, or rather that he hadn't been given the chance. The nightly patrol passed uneventfully, and the Princess's visit to Germania had been almost too peaceful. He had expected some brawling and drinking among the soldiers, and perhaps a few duels arranged by the Nobles for show if nothing else, but there had been nothing. Even though he'd only stood outside to guard the chambers for most of the proceedings, even he had sensed that the meeting between Henrietta and the King had not gone as planned, or even as _not_ planned. It had to have been the Einzberns, damn them.

Wardes wrenched his mind away from the recent memories as a familiar smell wafted through the air. As a Wind mage, Wardes occasionally took advantage of his abilities to listen in on conversations carried by the wind, or to identify someone based purely on scent. It was a rarely used power, but nonetheless one that deserved to see the light of day once in a while. A familiar, acrid smell caused Wardes to cease his downward descent, leaving him content to hover above the field, hidden by clouds he had brought for cover. He knew that scent, for he'd only recently discovered it.

The smell of rotten Magic.

The day was bright, the sun high in the sky, and it was no surprise that the students of Tristain's Magic Academy had taken advantage of the opportunity. With the cancellation of classes in honour of Her Highness' visit, the fledgling Mages celebrated their future Queen almost as much as they celebrated their free time.

Well, most of them, at any rate.

"Forget it," the fluffy, crinkled hair of his fiancé's familiar swung back and forth as he shook his head. "Listen, what you need to do is take advantage of what you've got. You're overweight, not that good at magic, and pretty empty in the personality department. She's not going to look your way until she sees something in it for her. Strut your stuff, throw some money around to make it seem like you're rich, and that girl of yours will be all over you."

"But Guiche said that flaunting one's money is like showing off a statue you didn't carve yourself," another boy said in a reedy voice. "I want her to love me, not my dad's cash."

"Guiche has no idea what he's talking about," Shinji assured him. "Look, you're what, sixteen? At this age all anyone cares about is playing around. There's nothing wrong with greasing the wheels a bit if it's all just practice for the future. You can worry about that 'love' bullshit once you hit your forties and need some kids. For now, just go wild and use every tactic you know. Show off your feathers and someone's bound to notice them."

Wardes saw the other boy (was his name Malicorne? Wardes didn't make a habit of remembering the names of unimportant people) leave, followed him for a few moments, and then drew his eyes back to Shinji. The boy reclined on a tree near the outskirts of the Academy, where most students tended not to go. A familiar, acrid smell caused Wardes to cease his downward descent, leaving him content to hover above the field, hidden by clouds he had brought for cover. The familiar, however, showed no fear as he yawned and closed his eyes, relaxing under the nice shade.

Or at least trying to. From several hundred feet in the air Wardes had missed the bags under Shinji's eyes, but someone else didn't.

"You look horrible," Louise said, panting between breaths. The walk up the hill had been fairly stressful for an unfit young girl, and it was only her innate stubbornness that had let her climb all the way up in a dress without stopping.

Shinji cracked open an eye and the lazy smile on his face immediately vanished. "So do you, but you don't see me complaining about it. What do you want, Valliere? Surely you don't want to interrupt your familiar's rest for some menial task?"

"I can and will," she panted. "But this is more important than that. If I could I'd leave you out of it, but that isn't an option."

"I don't follow." But Shinji was giving her his full attention despite that.

His Master straightened, folding her arms and puffing out her chest with pride. "We," she said. "Have a mission."

"…a what?"

"A mission from Her Highness, Prince Henrietta herself."

"I don't get it."

"It will be long, difficult, and we are unlikely to be rewarded, so the honour of having served the kingdom will have to suffice instead."

Shinji groaned. "Would you please just tell me what your girlfriend wants already?"

Louise aimed a lazy kick at his head, and Shinji let his head fall to the side, avoiding it easily. His Master hissed as her foot struck solid wood, and suppressed several curse words wholly unfit for Nobles to be using. By the time she was able to stand normally again, Shinji had risen and stretched his arms, yawning loudly as he did so.

"C'mon, out with it," he said. "I want to see how you think you'll convince me to follow whatever ridiculous request your queen's given you."

"Gr… your Master's order should be enough, stupid familiar!"

"Ah," Wardes sighed from the skies. Louise hadn't changed a bit since her childhood. She was just as short tempered and irritable as ever. "Well, this is simply wonderful." Her familiar's misbehaviour was regrettable, but after meeting Shinji the previous night, Wardes wasn't surprised. No Noble would ever swear fealty to someone other than their lord without reason, and he doubted that a few familiar runes would be enough to provoke loyalty to a complete stranger.

He waited a few more minutes, listening to the childish argument below. He wasn't sure how to feel about his fiancé failing to tame her familiar, so Wardes settled for not thinking of the matter. He returned to watching the perimeter of the school grounds for any signs of unwanted activity, only occasionally sneaking glances at the two arguing teens below.

There was nothing to see, of course. It was the middle of the day, and the castle had been garrisoned by almost a hundred soldiers. There was no one stupid enough to attack such a fortress at night, let alone when the sun was up. But orders were orders. He had to keep watch and patrol because someone _had_ attacked, less than a month before the Princess' arrival, only to almost immediately leave after realizing that they couldn't break through the Academy's enchanted walls.

"Foquet the Crumbling Dirt," Wardes said, his words lost to the wind. "I don't know who you are, but you've already irritated me simply by forcing me to waste my time like this."

Wardes glanced down and saw that the argument between Shinji and Louise had reached a climax. As the boy paused to formulate his next words, Wardes took the moment to begin his slow downwards descent. His familiar let out a rumble, and the mage absentmindedly ran a hand through its fur, placating the tired beast.

"I'm not sure," was the boy's conclusion. "This reeks. Why would that princess send you of all people on a solo journey to some far off country, on some mission so secret you won't even tell me what it is? I know you two were supposedly BFFs once, but don't you think it's fishy how she suddenly showed up here just to ask the person least qualified for this kind of job for help?"

But Louise was adamant. There was a stubborn streak in her a mile wide, matching even Shinji's belligerence. "Her Highness has her reasons," she insisted. "Perhaps she's being spied on and I'm the only one she can trust. Whatever the case, I'm not going to refuse this request. I'll get to Albion even if I have to walk!"

"That's stupid. There's a difference between being loyal and indulging in anyone's requests. You should say no and tell her you're not qualified to do whatever the hell it is she wanted from you. Besides, don't you have school? You can't just up and leave whenever you feel like it."

"No one refuses a queen's request, not even Headmaster Osmond. Besides, it's not as if we're learning anything here. It's all just the same few lessons over and over again."

Shinji frowned, but seemed to give up. "Fine, whatever. I'm not even going to try figuring out why you're so insanely devoted to that Princess of yours. But why are you trying to drag me into all of this?"

"Drag!?" Louise puffed up, her anger quickly building up. "I'm the one who had to convince her that you could be trusted, idiot! She wanted me to leave you behind!"

"Then you should. It's not like I asked to go. Why are you adding unnecessary complications? You want to go? Then go! I'm not stopping you as long as you don't involve me. Just let me stay here while you go on your little field trip."

"You're my familiar," she said firmly. "You go where I go. That's final. Besides," Louise hesitated, but pressed on. "This field trip won't kill you, and if you play your cards right it could get you into the Princess' good graces."

"…keep talking."

"Furthermore, Albion's capital has a large library, with some books on magic and history that are sure to not be found here. All the capitals have their own individual collections, each with unique knowledge. My point is that if we couldn't find any spell to break this familiar bond or send you home at the Academy, then we might be able to find it in Albion while we're there. You _do_ want to go home, don't you?"

Shinji hesitated. "…yeah, I guess. Still no reason to bring me along though. You could look through the library while you're there."

"No, I won't. If you want to be free, then you have to earn it. At the very least, I need to see you try. Staying here means you're content to live as my familiar and won't even make an effort to change your situation. So come with me."

Shinji fumed. He frowned, and gave Louise one of his frequent glares. While the boy was normally relaxed and cheerful, if aggravating, it was those moments where he descended into barely restrained anger that Louise hated the most. In those moments, he felt less like a Mage or Familiar and more like a repressed criminal waiting to get his hands covered with blood. But at the same time, she felt a surge of pride run through her veins. She'd gotten to him. Provoked actual anger. For the moment, it was the best she'd be able to get.

But the moment passed, and Shinji relaxed again. "Okay," he said. "I'll be your escort, _Master_."

"Wonderful."

The two teens jumped in place at the sound of a new voice, and whirled to meet it. Wardes descended, jumping down from his griffin to land silently on the ground.

"W-Wardes…" Louise couldn't say anything. He'd shown up too quickly for her to prepare sliced past her guard simply through his entrance alone.

"Ah, my dear Louise. It has been a long time." Smiling gently, Wardes strode towards the paralyzed girl and scooped her up in his arms.

"W-wait," she shrieked. "There's people around!"

"Only your familiar, my dear. Worry not. Ah, you're still light as a feather."

"That's bad enough!" Blushing heavily, Louise was relieved when Wardes finally acquiesced and lowered her to the ground again. She stumbled, feeling weak at the knees all of a sudden. "D-Do you know my familiar?"

"We've had the pleasure of conversing, yes," Wardes said. What he didn't mention was said familiar's irresponsible conduct, or the smell of rot and stagnated water that emanated from the boy. It would be best not to irritate anyone. "Greetings, Matou."

"Hey," Shinji replied, hiding his shock behind closed eyes and a relaxed grin. "Guess you weren't lying about the fiancé thing. Congrats, I guess."

"Thank you."

"Anyway, since Master seems too caught up in fantasizing, I'll be the one to say it. Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be patrolling the castle?"

"I am," replied Wardes, not offended in the least by the boy's crass tone. "But the Princess has asked me to accompany her messenger on a certain mission. It's a happy coincidence that said messenger happens to be my dear Louise."

Louise, for her part, merely put her head in her hands and tried to hide her blush.

"Oh? Well that's a relief. At least we'll be able to defend ourselves if we run into bandits or monsters." Shinji stood, stretching his limbs.

"While I'm thankful for your confidence, I'll be expecting you to help out in such an occasion," the older man replied. With one hand he patted his tiny bride on the head, and with the other clutched the handle of the wand tucked through his belt.

"…yeah, of course," Shinji said. _Hell no, you lunatic_, he thought.

Wardes' griffin landed beside him. "Come," the man said. "We're going now."

Shinji blinked. "Now?"

"Now."

Louise nodded. "Now."

"But-"

"Now."

Another guard cloaked in black arrived from the bottom of the hill, leading a large horse with an equally dark pelt behind him. He saw Wardes and nodded, then released the animal and walked away without a word.

"You can ride, can't you?" the Noble asked.

"Uh."

Wardes frowned. "They don't have horses where you come from?"

"Not… really?"

Wardes' frown deepened.

"I'll teach him," Louise said before her fiancé could speak. It'll only take a few minutes. Every Noble knows how to ride a horse. Isn't that right, familiar?"

Shinji hesitated, and then nodded.

Wardes turned away as the two teens resumed their bickering. He debated plugging his nose to stifle the smell or directing the winds to carry the stench of the boy far away, but did nothing.

After all, he was not a frivolous man.

* * *

Three and a half hours later, Shinji was wishing that he'd swallowed his pride and stayed behind.

The ride was bumpy, the horse bucking under him for every single step it took on the rocky, unpaved road. Shinji's stomach groaned, not from hunger but protesting the rigorous march and swaying pace it had been subjected to. The boy himself had almost collapsed onto his steed's neck, and would have fallen asleep had it not been for the horrid smell of unwashed animal. He hadn't seen anything resembling civilization for what seemed like forever. There was just an endless expanse of forests and plains. Where someone else might've seen a beautiful spring day, Shinji saw nothing of value.

He looked up. In the clear sky there was a hint of a speck, the only sign that Louise and Wardes hadn't left him behind.

"Sure, make me sit on this stupid animal while you make out with a guy old enough to be your dad. I don't care, I'm just some dumb familiar who's here to follow orders and look sexy." Shinji raised his voice and screamed at his two travelling companions, even though he knew full well that none of them could possibly hear him from that height. "I hope you're happy! Look at me, walking bandit bait! I'm sure some brigands will be happy to ride up to me and slit my throat after finding out you're carrying all the money!"

To his surprise, there was a response.

"Defend yourself, then!" Wardes replied, his voice magically augmented so that it carried down hundreds of feet. "You are a Noble, are you not? Even a Dot Mage should be able to deal with a dozen ordinary ruffians! Or do you wish for me to protect you as well? My first duty is to my betrothed, familiar. If a fight occurs, I will always put her safety over yours."

"What if I get swarmed by like 50 guys?! Or someone who can use magic?"

"In that case, I might perhaps come down to aid you after seeing to the safety of your Master! But my dear Louise tells me that you are a proficient magus, and I am confident that you will not falsify her high opinion!"

"The hell? Isn't that just shifting the entire burden to me?"

"That is a familiar's role, and that of a Noble as well. You shouldn't be complaining about it!" Since Wardes was being forced to yell, Shinji couldn't make out any subtle nuances in the man's voice, but Louise's silence was more worrying than the threat of bandits. Shinji didn't care for her safety, but why wasn't she taking the opportunity to needle him with insults?

He didn't get the chance to find out.

They had come to a stretch of road that went through a small forest. The plains and rolling hills gave way to tall, broad leafed trees and shrubbery. Wardes' voice was muffled by the canopy, and in its place Shinji could hear the sound of the woods. The forest creatures scurrying and looking for food, a small stream happily gurgling, the deep, rhythmic footfalls of an elephant…

"…wait. That's…"

Shinji kicked his protesting horse to a stop and strained his ears, hoping that he had been mistaken. That the sound was merely his imagination instead of a far crueler reality.

A groan sounded, the sound of a large and old tree being bent to its breaking point. The various sounds disappeared one by one until only the offending noise remained. A single, unnatural disturbance to silence everything else.

He felt it, next. The ground under the horse's feet shuddered, almost shaking the inexperienced rider from his seat. Shinji's hold on the reins tightened until his hands turned white, but he dared not move. Not when he couldn't be sure of its location.

That part didn't last long.

With an almighty crash that almost unseated Shinji, a tree trunk as twice as thick as a man's arm span fell in front of the boy, blocking the road forward. At the same time a similar trunk fell a few dozen feet behind him, leaving the mass of trees on either side as the only possible escape routes. An experienced rider could've attempted to jump the barriers, but Shinji wasn't confident enough to try.

His first instinct was to call Wardes, but he quickly silenced himself before the cry for help could escape his lips. Wardes would figure out that something was wrong soon enough. There was no point in alerting his attacker. Instead…

"D-do you think that was a clever trap?" Shinji forced himself to sound confident and assured. "There's nothing special about something that even a commoner could come up with! If you're here to rob me, then give up before I destroy you with my magic, and thank me for my mercy in allowing you to escape!"

There was no response. Instead, the regular footfalls started up again, shaking the earth more with every step as they approached. Shinji's horse chose that moment to decide that its master was an idiot, and reared back. Shinji slid off its back before he could grab the reins, and the horse, once free of its rider, easily jumped the barricade and ran off.

"Damn it!" Shinji staggered to his feet, but after that he froze, unable to decide what to do.

"Nothing to say?" A voice, amplified and disguised by magic, assaulted his ear drums. "My, my, where's all that bluster about mercy you were spouting a second ago?" The dirt road under Shinji's legs cracked, and he backed up until his back was against a tree.

"Who's there!?" He yelled. "Show yourself!" His voice cracked at the end, but Shinji didn't care enough to be embarrassed about it. He was focusing more on not collapsing in fright.

"I don't think so," the voice replied. "See, I'd much rather stay hidden and watch you quake in fear. It's so wonderful to see Nobles break, to see them beg for their lives, to commoners even. I wonder, little boy, when will your pride shatter?"

"You're not scaring me!" Shinji protested, knowing it was a lie, but denying that truth to his conscious mind. "I'd say you have a different reason for staying out of my sight. You don't want me to destroy you, so you're just bluffing and hoping you'll get me surrender instead of destroying this entire forest in pursuit of the one who dared to attack me!"

"If you could do anything, you would have done it by now. No, you're all bark, no bite. I see that now. Maybe you're so weak you can't even fight an ordinary human, so you're relying on that title of yours to serve as a shield. Too bad, but I'm a mage as well, and I'm certainly much more skilled than you."

"Y-you're bluffing?"

"Hehehe… So that's how it is, huh? Well then, how about this, mister Noble? In a few seconds, I'll show you just how much I'm bluffing, but since I'm merciful, I'll give you a chance to escape me. _Run_."

He ran.

Shinji was an athletic person, even if said athleticism was more for the sake of attracting girls than it was for keeping himself in shape. His arms were toned from years of archery, and his legs were similarly muscled from all the times he'd showed up to try and woo the girls from the track team. His efforts had been less than successful, but as a side effect he found that running wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd expected it to be, even through a forest full of trees and uneven ground.

Of course, running wasn't the same as escaping. Shinji ducked under a low hanging branch and leapt forward over a small stream, landing awkwardly as a heavy thud from behind broke his attention. He managed to keep his footing and continued for a few feet before skipping over a cluster of roots, inadvertently pushing his face through another branch that he'd missed. Sputtering, he risked a backwards glance.

A giant hand reached out of the darkness to grab him.

Shinji tripped, fell, and rolled forward into a heap. At the same time, the hand pushed past, just barely missing him. Whoever was manipulating the limb formed a fist and raised it, and Shinji had scarcely rolled out of the way when it came down, smashing the ground and sending bits of earth flying in every direction.

Shinji tasted dirt, his ears ringing and balance shot. He stumbled to his knees, coughing and spitting out the offending taste. When he turned back, though, all thoughts of cleanliness left the building.

He couldn't say that it was something he'd never seen before. The golem stood as much as 30 feet, and it was entirely composed of earth. He saw some rocks here and there, crushed into a form that would let them flow around each other. The hand that had sought to grab him shone with a metallic sheen, and the other was raised, ready to move at a moment's notice. He'd witnessed the sight before, weeks earlier, but then it had been for a brief moment, from a few hundred feet away, while its back was turned to him.

The golem had no head. Instead, a person wrapped in a dark cloak (not to be mistaken for the several other people wearing dark cloaks that Shinji had recently met) sat on one shoulder. Their face was completely hidden, but they spared no effort to keep silent.

"Hm. Not a very good performance. Didn't you say that you were a Noble? I didn't see any magic there, so perhaps you're simply bad at casting spells. Then again… you were yelling about being a familiar, so perhaps it was a lie and you're simply a commoner who doesn't know his place. My, my, don't you know that pretending to be a mage can be punished by death, little liar?"

_It stood, towering over him as the girl perched on its shoulder laughed._

_The hood fell back, revealing a familiar white and red face._

_"Is this it?" Illyasviel von Einzbern asked. "That's pathetic. So this is what the Makiri have been reduced to. Your family was powerful, once, but their latest heir doesn't even possess functioning magic circuits. I can't say I'm disappointed, but I'm sure my grandfather would be. He told me that Zouken Makiri was one of his greatest allies and enemies, but all I see here is a pathetic boy grovelling for his life."_

_"I… R-Rider, save me," Shinji whispered. He was on the ground, so he rolled onto his back and scrambled to get away from his enemy. His hands were sliced open on the sharp shards underneath, but he didn't care. He had to get away. Get away so Rider would come and save him and kill his enemy and-_

_"I wasn't finished!"_

_He screamed as the air around his body suddenly burst into flames. His lungs were aflame. His eyes were aflame. His ears, his lips, all of the water in Shinji's body had dried up in an instant. Nothing remained. Just a broken husk of carbon and waste products._

_"As I was saying…" _

_Shinji sucked in a breath, choking on the dryness of his mouth, but still drawing in fresh air. His skin was covered in burns, but he was alive. He could see! He could hear! He… could still die._

_"This is really boring," Illyasviel said. The girl played with her hair while the giant carrying her took a slow, shuddering step forward. "Berserker, toy with him a little bit, but don't break him."_

_The stone slab of a sword lunged towards Shinji's face, and on instinct he raised a hand to futilely defend himself._

_The blade stopped inches from his body, but the shockwave of the slash continued, snapping the bones in Shinji's forearm and throwing the boy farther down the hallway, through the broken pieces of several windows. The wind screamed through the remains of the glass, bringing cold October air into the once closed building._

_It hurt quite a bit, but the fledgling magus retained enough of his mind to recognize the development as a good thing. Anything that got him farther away from that monster could only be a positive. He stumbled to his feet, reaching into his charred uniform and pulling out his Book of the False Attendant with his good hand._

_But it, too, was burnt. When he opened it, the spine cracked audibly and several pages fell out. Some were only ash, and others had been fused together by the intense heat. It was almost unreadable, not that he'd understood any of the script in the first place._

_"It won't work," Illya said as Berserker carried her closer. "That's an interesting toy. I have to hand it to Zouken, even as a husk he still understands command seals more than anyone else. So he's even figured out how to transfer them to a non-living object… but regardless, it's plain to see what this represents. Your Servant is dying, Makiri. And in the Holy Grail War, that means you're dead as well."_

_Shinji stared, numb, at the book. It had failed him. Rider had failed him, again. An emotion flared up in him that wasn't fear. What gave her the right? What gave his tool the right to lose?!_

_"Anyway, I've had my fun," Illya giggled. "Now let's make this interesting. How about this? I'll give you options! You can fight here and die, or you can jump off and maybe survive the several hundred feet you'll fall! If you make it, I'll promise to let you live. Or you can just be boring, run down that hall, and hope that when Berserker smashes you it'll be your head he squashes and not something else. How about it?"_

_Shinji's mind was blank. The pain shut out every thought he dared to form, leaving only the most basic instincts to control his body. He heard only the beating of his own heart, wishing frantically to live, and the high, mocking laughter of Illya, with Berserker's rumble as background noise. He wanted to live. He wanted to live. He didn't want to die._

_Somewhere, in his broken mind, he heard the choice Illya had given him. Fight, run, or take a leap of faith off the edge of the building._

_He looked down. The busy street below was rife with lights and people. Perhaps someone would catch him even from such a height. Maybe the air resistance would miraculously slow him down enough for his body to survive. Perhaps by sacrificing his legs and lower body, his brain wouldn't be torn apart by the impact._

_Berserker stood before him. The unbeatable Servant that could lay low even Saber herself. Rider was gone, and the book in his arms was burning up more every second. Even if he could get some magecraft out of it, there was no guarantee it would do anything to Illya or Berserker, it would be like relying on a slot machine with only a single coin._

_He ran._

_His arm flopped, limp at his side. The burnt book was safely stowed in his charred jacket. Blood and bone ground against the floor and shards of glass found their way into his body with every frantic step. He might've been screaming, but he couldn't tell._

_A half dozen steps, and he felt Berserker's blade rushing to meet the back of his head._

_Yes, he had chosen the only path that guaranteed death, so it was a logical consequence of his actions. Shinji wasn't surprised. In the infinite moment between life and death, he mourned his own cowardice. Unable to risk his life, he had taken the most sure option like a coward not afraid of failure, but fearing the tiny possibility of victory. He could have attacked, almost certainly dying but grasping for the hope that might not even have existed. He could have jumped, betting his life on pure chance. But he had run, knowing that it was impossible to escape Berserker, and that he would certainly be killed._

_That was why. That was why Matou Shinji could never be a magus. It wasn't his lack of circuits, his unbecoming attitude, or abandonment by his grandfather. From the beginning, he had lacked the mentality needed for one who walked with death. Seeking to become someone who risked his soul every day of his life, yet unable to bet on himself when the time came. Such a magus could not exist. Illyasviel was merely the personification of that law and Berserker was his punishment for disregarding it._

_Then a rotating rhombus opened in front of him, and Shinji was swallowed up without a sound._

"Well?"

Shinji blinked. The golem was still standing in front of him, and there was a woman perched on its shoulder. He didn't miss that her hair was a strange shade of green, or that the golem, while bigger than Berserker, was nowhere near as fast. He saw the faintest hint of a frown on the woman's face.

"Fuck you," he said.

The woman shifted imperceptibly. Her next words were quiet, almost imperceptible, but all the more sinister for that. "What did you say?"

Shinji pushed himself up, rising to his feet. He brushed some dust off his pants casually, as if not caring about the giant golem and expert mage in front of him. "I said fuck you," he repeated. He shook his head, then raked a hand through his hair, pulling out all the dirt and leaves while simultaneously pushing it back, leaving his forehead bare.

"You were doing just fine earlier, but you lost it," he continued. "For a moment, I was almost nervous before I remembered who you were. But this world isn't anything special if you think the threat of dying is enough to scare me, especially from a petty thief who couldn't even break into an academy of brats."

He whipped out the charred book, holding it open with a single hand. "A magus walks with death, idiot. You think you were clever by trapping me here? All you've done is deliver yourself straight into my hands, Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt!"

Fouquet barked out a command, and the golem raised its fist to try and smash Shinji. Or at least it tried to. But it couldn't move.

"When did you-?" Black shadows had burst from the ground, wrapping themselves around the golem's arm, anchoring it to the earth. Despite the golem's size, it was powerless to shift so many of them at once, so quickly. During his speech, Shinji had summoned a dozen separate amorphous limbs, each one preventing movement.

Shinji ran. Not away, or to the sides, but forward. He jumped, clambering onto the golem's trapped hand. A few steps brought him halfway across its arm and that much closer to Fouquet, who stood up, growling unheard curses. She reached into the folds of her robe with one hand, presumably to draw her wand.

The golem raised its other, less restrained hand. Only a few shadows bound it, and it easily ripped free of them as it awkwardly swiped at Shinji, who ducked to avoid it. At the same time, the arm stopped at the shoulder, just in front of Fouquet, anchoring itself to its own shoulder to prevent Shinji from getting through. The golem tried to stand once more, and with a groan the fingers of the hand that had been secured to the ground began to fall apart one by one as Fouquet released the power holding them together. Unbalanced, with only one arm and that one half swallowed by its own body, the golem waddled to its feet, barely able to stay up.

Shinji stared for a moment at the solid wall of stone that had appeared in front of him, nodded, and _then_ turned and ran.

He jumped off the crumbling arm, landed on the ground poorly, turned it into an impromptu roll, and somehow managed to get to his feet in the same motion, breaking into a more even run.

There was no fighting Fouquet. Shinji's offensive abilities were inadequate, and he possessed no weapon with which to kill someone who could probably summon up a storm of earthen blades with little effort. So in the end, it all came back to running. Fouquet was an Earth mage, that was clear enough, and a skilled one at that, judging from the size of the golem and the finesse with which she moved it. It was highly probably that she was detecting his presence through vibrations in the earth, which explained how she could still know where he was even without line of sight.

So Shinji jumped after distancing himself from the flailing thief. He picked a suitably tree and took a leap, grabbing onto a low hanging branch and pulling himself up with a grunt. Suddenly he was grateful for all the practice his arms had had pulling a bow. He quickly made his way up until he was as far up the tree as he could go without it bending. Then he grabbed the nearest branches and pulled them towards his body, hoping that the leaves would hide his distinctive cloak well enough that Fouquet wouldn't spot him from below.

He was entirely unprepared for a hand to grab the back of his cloak from above, yanking him from his perch.

"What the-"

"Quiet." A strained voice spoke from above.

Shinji shut up. Perhaps it was the fact that he was flying through the air at several miles an hour being held up only by something yanking on his hood, or the recent stress of attacking a powerful mage in what was little more than a bluff, but he felt less inclined to speak than he usually did. The person holding him up rose, lifting Shinji above the tree tops of the forest. He saw a sea of green before the man carrying him grunted, and a strap of leather descended to hang in front of Shinji. "Climb," the man said. The boy grabbed on pulled himself up, spending the last of his adrenaline fueled strength to clamber onto the back of what he now recognized as Wardes' griffin. The animal growled at the added weight, but was quickly quieted when the man gave it a few firm pats.

For a few minutes the only sound that could be heard was the rhythmic flapping of the griffin's wings as it carried Wardes and Shinji away from the forest and the no doubt angry thief trapped within. Wardes panted slightly from the previous exertion, and Shinji panted even more. They flew several circles above the small forest before they ascended again, this time plunging into the clouds.

"So…" Wardes recovered first. "A magus walks with death?"

"Yeah," Shinji replied.

"A bit morbid, isn't it?"

"Yup."

"You weren't planning on coming out of that alive, were you?"

"Was," Shinji gasped, deciding to stick to one word answers until he got his breath back.

"Well, I'll have to revise my opinion of you in that case. I'd put down 'Survivor' earlier, but I might be exchanging it for 'Reckless' very soon. You do realize that Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt is known to be a Triangle or Square mage, right? Attacking her head on… that's not something most would call wise."

Shinji glared at the back of the man's head. "Had to," he said. The boy took a deep breath before speaking again. "Running away was pointless. She was locked on. Can't fly, unlike _some_ people."

"I never said that _I_ don't consider it wise," Wardes said. "It was a solid tactic, and I didn't expect something with that level of complexity from a student."

Shinji was silent for a moment. "Why did you wait so long to save me?" he asked. "You were there for at least half of it, I'm sure, but you only did something when I managed to get away on my own."

"Heh. Caught me," Wardes admitted, chuckling slightly. Shinji stiffened behind him. It was as good as an admission.

"_Why_?" he growled.

"Think of it as a test," Wardes said. "I'll be honest, familiar. The only reason you came along with us is because my dear Louise insisted we bring you. If I had my way, you'd have been left behind in that academy to play your little court games with the rest of the students. I've only met you once, but I can already tell how much of a handful you are. Disrespecting your superiors, insulting your mistress, and speaking in such a crude tongue, all while claiming to be as Noble as I… such behavior would lead to your death in other countries, and it's certainly not something we admire here. So I tested you to see if you'd be of any use. Fouquet's attack was a lucky coincidence. I had originally planned on having a little duel with you, but this served just as well to tell me how good you are at surviving on a battlefield. Perhaps I would have intervened if it was to save your life, since Louise seems very attached to you despite your horrible attitude, but first and foremost, I wished to see how you would act in a situation like that."

Shinji was silent for a long time. When he spoke again his tone was even and measured, with all traces of emotion scrubbed out.

"Did I pass your test?"

"Flying colours."

They flew through a cloud and came out slightly damp, and Shinji spotted a rainbow out of the corner of his eye. He chanced a glance down and, upon seeing only faintly visible land, quickly looked up again.

"When are we landing?" he asked, slightly nervous.

"Now," Wardes said, and steered the griffin into a steep dive that would put any roller coaster to shame.

As a small mercy, Shinji's scream was almost drowned out by the air rushing past them as they descended abruptly. Wardes, however, still had to put up with the shrill noise right behind his ear canal. He would've believed it if Shinji later told him it had been on purpose.

As they neared the ground, their destination became visible. A small, brightly coloured figure sat on a fallen log in a plain, surrounded by large rocks of varying sizes, with a lowered pit in the center. It might've once been a camp fire, but it had obviously not been used for months. There was another figure sitting across from Louise, yet another of the black cloaked people Shinji had been seeing all day.

"Wardes!" As they touched the ground, Louise rushed forward, worry clearly spelt out on her face. "Are you okay? Did anything happen?"

"I am fine, my dear," the older man said. He swept the hat off his head and smiled as he jumped off the griffin and landed elegantly on the ground. Louise threw her arms around his middle, and he patted her head gently. Shinji, meanwhile, all but collapsed to the ground, moaning something unintelligible.

"Is… um, is he okay?" Louise asked when she finally spotted her familiar.

Wardes glanced at Shinji. "He'll live," he said. "I'm more worried about you. Are you all right? Were there any problems? Perhaps I should've left you more than one wind double for protection…"

He looked at the cloaked figure sitting on one of the rocks. "Well, at least it's fine. Perhaps my worries were unfounded."

"Well, about that," Louise released her hold on Wardes and took a step back. "See, that's not… well, could you explain please, Sir?" Her voice got quieter as she spoke, until her last words were barely a whisper. It was only then that Wardes noticed how pale she was, and how much she was shaking as she spoke.

The figure heard Louise's words. It raised its head, letting its hood fall back.

White hair and red eyes. It could be no one else.

"Greetings," the man said. "My apologies for destroying your double. I am Gerecht von Einzbern. I'm here to accompany you on your journey."


	9. Chapter 9: Red Rum Ranger

"Would you like some water?" Wardes asked.

"No," said Louise for the seventh time. Like the previous six times, the double only nodded and closed its mouth, staying unnaturally still, yet shivering as if it was the middle of winter. Its unstable form was the only indication that it was not the true Wardes, along with the blurring of its finer facial features. In every other respect, it looked identical to Louise's fiancé.

It was a shame Wardes hadn't given it intelligence to match his good looks.

Louise stood. She had tried to stay calm, but eventually her restless energy won out. There was no way she could do nothing while her familiar was in danger, even if said familiar could use danger more often than not.

She looked at the perfectly still double again. "Can you make another double?"

She saw it hesitate for a moment before replying, but chalked it up to the decreased intelligence. "No," it said. "One only. No more. This spell is draining, and particularly difficult. Your beloved could only do this much."

Wardes hadn't looked very winded when casting the spell, but Louise didn't know enough about his magic abilities to cast any doubt upon the double's words. In fact, she hardly knew anything about the man at all.

Seeing nothing better to do, Louise settled for pacing and trying to call up the few memories of the Viscount that she could muster up. The last time she'd seen him was more than ten years ago, when he'd left his estate to make a name for himself in the capital. She'd been barely a child, waving goodbye while clinging to her older sister's dress, and he, barely an adult, had been brimming with purpose and energy that only the young could have.

In those ten years… just how much had her fiancé changed? Gone was the barely restrained smile, and the tense way he'd carried himself, full of insecurity and determination at the same time. He had been a slight boy, but as an older man he was all muscle. His smiles came easily, but they lacked the weight that they'd once had, and Louise couldn't see past them.

Louise shuddered as a breeze flowed past her. No matter how much she wished to recall them, her fond memories of sleeping on a boat in the middle of the lake in her backyard wouldn't come. Perhaps it was the ever present matter of her familiar, or maybe there was too much of a difference between the Wardes of ten years earlier and the Wardes of the present. It didn't matter; Louise couldn't calm down a bit. The clouds covering the sun weren't helping, either.

Louise looked up on a whim she asked, "could you clear away those clouds?"

"Perhaps my original could," the double replied. "But I cannot. Would you like a drink of water?"

"Just be quiet," Louise sighed. All of her good cheer was already gone. She'd been driven by the knowledge that she was doing something important, something for her friend and ruler. But that kind of determination never lasted long without being sustained, and all of Louise's energy was gone. She wanted to sleep, or perhaps to yell at Shinji again. That always made her feel better…

But the world wasn't so kind as to grant her the rest she needed. "There is an intruder. Be on your guard." Wardes' double stood upon sensing an unfamiliar smell. It frowned and spun in place, looking at the woods nearby. There were at least a hundred meters between their camp site and the tree line, so anything emerging would have to travel without cover. As far as defenses went it was subpar, but for a mage the clear line of sight was perfect.

Louise blinked and looked to where the double was glaring.

Without any kind of warning a small figure dashed out from the shadows between trees. Clad in a dark cloak and running almost as fast as a horse in full gallop, it bounded over the short grass between it and Louise without hesitation.

A second passed and it was a quarter of the way across. The Wardes double pulled out its wand.

The stranger was more identifiable the closer it got. Whoever it was, they were too tall to be a student. Louise squinted even as she drew her own wand from a pocket.

At the halfway mark between the forest and the camp site, the Wardes double swung its wand with a flourish.

The approaching figure stopped. A concealed hand reached into a hidden pocket even as the air in front of it suddenly became a deadly blade.

The ripping air struck the figure, and even from a distance Louise could hear the scream of steel protesting. For a second the intruder was halted, but eventually it swung through the wind spell, scattering currents of air and revealing the glint of a blade clutched in one hand.

In that second, the double launched a half dozen similar blades without hesitation.

This time the figure didn't bother blocking the attacks. It started up its run again, taking a diving roll to dodge a slash that wouldn't cleaved it in half, and knocking a vertical strike out of the way before bull dozing a path straight through two crossed blades of wind, shoving through them with nothing but its own strength.

At twenty five meters, Wardes' double started to move. Seeing that a ranged attack wouldn't work it ran forward, wrapping itself in wind to increase its speed and counter the intruder's approach. Louise thought she caught another order to run, but chose to discard it. Instead, she focused on preparing a spell to support Wardes. Even if it turned into an explosion half way through, there was a possibility she could help.

But the double didn't need help. Even divided, the combat power of a Griffin Knight was nothing to sneeze at. The two combatants met, the unstable double matching up against the masked intruder, who wielded what Louise now recognized as a sword in one hand, leaving the other completely empty.

Both swung at the same time. The intruder's sword smashed against Wardes' magically reinforced wand, and a shockwave created ripples in the grass around them. The intruder, sensing it had the advantage, swung the blade with speed that Louise had only ever seen from Shinji in their duel, but the double blocked every blow with perfectly positioned strikes, wincing slightly as its hands shook from the impact. To combat the sheer strength of the stranger's reckless attack, Wardes used all the skill and knowledge he'd gained as a Griffin Knight. And he was winning.

As the intruder drew back its sword for a one handed smash, the double suddenly dashed forward, pushing back its opponent with a well timed shoulder to the chest. The intruder was forced to leap back, covering almost ten meters with a single bound, bringing its free hand up to clutch its aching chest, panting lightly.

"Surrender," the double said. "Or I will be forced to use lethal force."

The intruder paused, and then slowly shook its head. "You will use lethal force even if I do surrender," a firm male voice proclaimed.

"Of course," the double replied.

It raised its wand, gathering wind around it like the eye of a hurricane. For a moment, the double showed genuine emotion: anger. The wind condensed around the wand until it was all but invisible, transforming it from a tool to cast spells into a tearing blade of wind. "If you are lucky," the double said. "Only your blade will be destroyed. Beware. Like this, I can rend even steel."

The man's response was to grip his sword with both hands.

They charged. The winds propelled Wardes' double forward with inhuman speed, and the stranger countered by kicking off the ground, meeting the charge with insane speed of his own, though not powered by any visible spell.

For a moment all seemed still to Louise. She blinked, and nothing happened. She drank in every detail of the scene. The double, its blade of wind frozen mid flight. The stranger, his unusual sword about to descend. The air, twisting and turning amidst the chaos. The void, empty of all emotion…

The clash would lead to the double winning. Of course it would. No sword could stand against a spell made to destroy weapons, so the outcome was obvious. But at the same time, Louise couldn't deny the chill that went down her spine.

When their swords met, the wind ended.

No, it had not ended. A glow came from the stranger's blade, not protecting it from Wardes' wind but rather absorbing the very spell meant to destroy the weapon. The men pushed, locked in a stalemate, but with every passing second it became clearer just how the battle would end.

After a few seconds, Wardes' spell was gone, as if the stranger's blade had drunk it all up. Without the wind strengthening him, the double rapidly wilted under the stranger's strength, and all efforts to summon up a spell for aid were met with failure as the stranger's weapon drank up the magical energy before it could form anything. Said stranger grunted, pushed upwards, and was rewarded by the sight of Wardes' wand spinning through the air after being knocked out of its owner's hands.

The double's eyes widened as it saw beneath the man's cloak, but couldn't get a word out before it was sliced in two with a single stroke. Any experienced fighter would have called the strike amateur, but the sheer speed of the stranger's swing was enough to cast away all doubts about his physical ability. The image of Louise's betrothed hovered in the air for a moment, slack jawed and surprised, before fading away into air currents.

The stranger turned to Louise, sheathing his sword as he moved until he stood, unarmed, before a girl with her wand pointed straight at him.

"G-go away," Louise said, forcing strength she didn't have into her shaking voice. "You won't be able to block my spell. Just leave now."

"Relax, milady," the man said. He lowered his hood, revealing a pair of red eyes, long white hair even paler than Wardes', and an awkward smile that look out of place on his face. He couldn't have been much older than Shinji. "The nefarious rogue who was holding you hostage has been eliminated. If the real one returns, I shall slay him for daring to kidnap a Noble lady."

Louise blinked, but didn't lower her wand. Then she frowned.

"Are you messing with me?" she asked, lifting her wand a bit more. The tip had begun to glow slightly with restrained magic. If she held her spell in any longer it would be her wand exploding instead of the attacker.

"Absolutely not," the man said confidently, although she noticed the smile on his face flicker for a moment. "Please, be at ease. I am powerful enough to slay most opponents. Should your kidnapper return, I will finish him off immediately."

"That _kidnapper_ is my fiancé," Louise said. Still, she lowered her wand slightly. There was a familiar feeling welling up in the pit of her stomach. Something was missing. Some important thing she didn't know. "I don't know who you are, but evidently you have no idea who the person you just fought was, let alone who I am."

The man recoiled and his eyes widened in surprise. The expression didn't suit his face. It was like a wax statue had suddenly become sentient. All the movements were technically correct, but there was something inhuman there all the same. "My apologies, lady," he said, sinking to one knee in a bow. "The mistake was completely mine, then. Indeed, I had no idea you were bringing your beloved with you on this perilous mission, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière."

Louise's frown deepened. "How do you know my name?"

"I make sure to know of all those who are important to the future Queen of Tristain," he replied, somehow managing to sound proud of something that would make most crazed stalkers blush. "Given my position, such a thing is well within my responsibilities."

Slightly more than creeped out, Louise still had enough sense not to lower her wand even as the man came closer. He stopped about two meters away, nodded, and sat down on the log Wardes' double had taken earlier. Louise took the hint and sat opposite him on her own log, not once dropping her wand. At that range, she was easily capable of blasting him without retaliation, and they both knew it.

"Your position," Louise began, testing out the phrase. "I'm afraid I have no idea what said position is, Mr. Hero, or who you are. Not particularly polite of you, is it? Or are you going to keep your identity secret 'for my protection'?"

"Ah!" Again, there was that shocked face. It looked more plastic than ever, like a mask that had suddenly replaced the man's previously expressionless expression. "I must apologize once more then, milady. Forgetting to introduce myself is a grave lapse of judgement. My name is Gerecht von Einzbern, if you will deign to remember it."

She did. Louise wished she didn't know the history behind the name 'Einzbern'. It would have made everything easier. She could have accepted his name without thinking about it, and then worked to either knock him out while he wasn't looking, run away, or stall until Wardes and Shinji returned. Sadly, her knowledge rendered such things impossible, forcing her to put up with a much too apologetic attacker who couldn't seem to make a proper facial expression.

"You're supposed to be in Germania," she blurted out.

Gerecht blinked again, bringing out the identical expression of shock for a third time. It was beginning to wear thin.

"Not at all," he said. "You are well informed, milady, but I have business here as a representative of His Majesty the King of Germania. Worry not. I am here on official business."

"Are you _here_ on official business? I ask, because all I've seen so far is you attacking us out of the blue and pretending it was so you could save me from the captain of the Griffin Knights by slicing him in half. Not a very good message you're sending, is it?"

Gerecht covered up the slightest blush on his pale skin by reaching into the folds of his cloak and withdrawing a letter. Louise recognized Henrietta's seal and snatched it out of his hand. She tore open the paper and pored over the lines within.

After a minute she looked back up at Gerecht, who appeared to be waiting patiently. When their eyes met he tried a friendly smile, but it ended up looking just as weak as his other attempts, and Louise brought her eyes back down to the paper almost immediately. A minute later, she folded up the letter and put it in her cloak.

She looked at Gerecht again. At length, she sighed. "Are you _sure_ you're an Einzbern?"

The young man nodded. "Positive. Would you like some tea?"

Louise glared at him, and he wisely shut up.

Minutes later Wardes arrived with a slightly dirtier Shinji, sans horse. Their reactions to Gerecht's appearance were much more graphic than Louise's had been.

Shinji, upon hearing the name Einzbern, looked up at Gerecht, groaned, and then let his head drop back down. "Just kill me now," he moaned.

Wardes was more sedated. A slight narrowing of the eyes and an almost casual grip on his sheathed wand was all that resulted from the sight. "It is… surprising to see you. I did not expect to see you here, sir," he said, his lips tight and words tighter. "Were you not saying earlier that you wished to keep your presence here a secret?"

"There was a change of plans," Gerecht said. Despite having just destroyed a copy of Wardes a few minutes earlier, he was perfectly calm. "It was decided that a mission as important as this could use some security, so I decided to accompany this lady for the duration of her trip. It's certainly more interesting than standing around gawking at students for three days."

Wardes frowned. "Did no one think to count the head of the Griffin Knights as enough security to secure the safety of a single girl?"

"The matter was considered," Gerecht replied. "And after consideration, the judgement was that you and… whoever that boy is, are not enough to protect Miss Valliere."

"And whose judgement would that be, Einzbern?"

Gerecht smiled, and this time there was no stiffness. "My own," he said. "Is there a problem, Wardes? Princess Henrietta could voice no objections before me, so there shouldn't be."

Wardes didn't overlook the wording of the sentence, and neither did Louise. Only Shinji, trying desperately to pretend there wasn't an Einzbern in front of him, missed the implication. Wardes' lips tightened, but after staring into Gerecht's red eyes for a few more seconds, the knight nodded. "… I cannot oppose your wishes," he said bitterly. "Diplomatic immunity and all the rights associated with it are yours, Einzbern. However, you hold no authority here despite your _status_ in Germania. If you wish to join our group, I will have to insist on placing you temporarily under my command for the sake of our survival."

"You will do no such thing," Gerecht said. Wardes stiffened, but the Einzbern was already moving on. "However… I will treat your words as suggestions, and you may find me inclined to follow them more often than not. Since you _are_ a knight, this is the mercy I will grant you."

Wardes bit his lip. He was about to protest when-

"That's fine," Louise said, shooting Wardes a desperate glance. "Right, m-my… dear?"

Wardes relaxed. "Of course," he said bitterly. "There are no protests."

"There are totally protests," Shinji said from behind the griffin, which was steadily becoming more and more annoyed at the boy desperately hugging its flank.

Gerecht looked at Shinji, or rather his blue hair, which was the only thing visible of the mage's body. "Ah, the familiar? So you're what the academy was buzzing about. You can go ahead and show yourself."

"I'd rather not," Shinji mumbled.

Gerecht frowned. "Fine. I _order_ you to come out. I cannot travel with someone whose face I've never seen."

Shinji's reaction was a second late in arriving, which allowed Louise to interject. "Actually," she said quickly. "It's, uh, traditional! In Tristain we try to have our familiars seen as little as possible most of the time. Shinji's especially shy, and he doesn't like strangers."

"Really? But isn't he a human familiar? I was told that such things were rare here. Normal rules shouldn't apply to him."

"We're a _very_ traditional family," Louise said, looking everywhere but at Gerecht and hoping he'd buy the lie. "It's part of the rules that a familiar must remain out of the way until I am of age. Really, um, complex stuff. Wouldn't want to bore you with it."

For a moment it seemed like he wouldn't buy it, but eventually the Einzbern nodded. "Of course," he said. "Forgive my rudeness. The culture of a new country takes some getting used to. I will attempt to keep your familiar out of my sight for as long as possible."

"Excellent." Wardes took the chance to steer the conversation in a better direction. There was no getting rid of Gerecht the normal way, so he would simply have to plan around the guest's appearance. "Now then, do you have a horse? We're almost halfway to La Rochelle, and travelling on foot is going to take much too long."

"I do. I left it tied up in the forest. Just give me a moment to retrieve it." With those words Gerecht turned and ran towards the forest at his ridiculous pace. Within seconds he was within the trees and invisible to the group.

Shinji raised his head, peeking over the irritated griffin's side. "Are you _sure_ this guy's an Einzbern?"

"I…" Louise paused. "Not really. But his letter was signed by the Princess, so we can't refuse him without reason."

"I have a reason. He's a fucking _psychopath_ waiting to kill us all."

Wardes frowned. "Get up. And do not insult him like that again. Even if he's a foreigner, this is the Princess'-." The knight stopped abruptly. He took a look around the camp sight, and upon seeing no one other than Louise and Shinji, he looked back to them. "What I'm about to tell you is to be kept secret, understand?"

They both nodded.

"Gerecht von Einzbern is to be wed to Princess Henrietta. He is the Germanian King's representative here, and the marriage will be for the purpose of bringing Tristain and Germania together as allies."

Shinji nodded as he stretched out his sore muscles, wincing occasionally when he hit a painful spot. This wasn't anything new to him. Louise, on the other hand, was more visibly shocked. "But… that's…"

"Politics dictates marriage more often than love. Tristain wished not to offend its larger neighbor, so this is the concession it had to make," Wardes continued. "It's shameful for nobles to stoop to such blatant political manoeuvrings, but that's the kind of world we live in at the moment."

"Princess…" Only Louise was shocked by the news. She looked down at her hands and the wand held within them. "She's giving up her love for her country's future. And to one of _them_…"

"That is how our countries operate, my dear." Wardes gently patted Louise on the head. "Don't worry. Perhaps she will find happiness in marriage like us."

If he noticed Louise stiffening under his touch, he chose to ignore it.

"Not bloody likely," Shinji muttered. He rotated his neck, issuing a series of cracks and pops that caused Louise to wince "I've met precisely one Einzbern in my life, and she tried to kill me while laughing about it."

"Keep calm, then," Wardes suggested. "I've spoken with Gerecht a few times when I accompanied her Highness in Germania. He may outwardly appear to be a buffoon, but it's nothing more than an act he puts up for his own amusement. However, he is not without reason. If you don't anger or otherwise irritate him, he probably won't try to harm you."

"Probably?"

Wardes shrugged. "He's an Einzbern," he said.

"You say that like it explains anything."

Wardes and Louise looked at each other before turning back to Shinji.

"I don't know much," Louise admitted. "But the Einzberns are apparently one of the newer and more secretive families in Germania. They appeared a few decades ago and quickly rose in both fame and status."

"They are not the type to try and draw attention, but their appearance is distinctive," Wardes took over. "As a whole they tend to keep to themselves, but they've garnered a somewhat infamous reputation in Germania for being _odd_."

"Odd?"

"It's the kindest possible word. Other than that, they've managed to somehow get in the King's good graces. That he'd send one as his representative is… worrying."

"But he's just a guest, right?" Louise asked. "Even if they're engaged, the actual wedding should be announced at least a week in advance for all the royal guests to arrive."

"Just a guest? Are you daft?" Shinji had finally shaken off the fear of the word Einzbern enough to speak normally. "If I understand the situation properly, your princess went to Germania and came back engaged to someone from a family that's only been around for a few years. If it's a political marriage like you described, then it's all kinds of wrong."

"For one so unused to Halkeginia, you do show some remarkable insight," Wardes said, patting Louise's head as she fixed her glare on Shinji. "But yes, this tells us much. For a ruler of a country, not just any groom will do. If the Princess is Tristain's sacrificial piece to create an alliance, then Germania should volunteer something of similar value. That is not the case here."

It took Louise only a moment to realize. "He's not of Royal blood!" she exclaimed. "For the exchange to be equal, Her Highness' sacrifice has to be matched. The King himself should have offered his hand, but instead he's having her wed someone from a very recently established family of decidedly not Royal mages. Either it's an insult… or he sees the Einzbern as just that valuable."

"Of course they'd be," Shinji grumbled some more. "Couldn't have them be fucking penniless, no, that would just be too damn convenient."

Louise looked at him again, taking in her familiar's lack of energy and morose expression. "Familiar, do you know something we don't about the Einzbern?"

Shinji said nothing.

"If you do, I-."

"I don't know anything, so don't order me to tell you," said Shinji. "Just don't. Know why I really agreed to follow you on this trip? It's not because I think there's a way for me to free myself in Albion. It was just so I could get away from that bastard. So don't ask. You'll regret it."

"Regret what?"

Gerecht's sudden appearance caught the entire group off guard. Even Wardes, who had been constantly looking out for the man's return, had not noticed him walking right up to the party, leading a regal stallion with his off hand and a tired looking mare with his other.

"Nothing!" Shinji said quickly. "Is that my horse?" He changed the subject.

"Is it?" Gerecht shrugged. "I found it running around with no rider, so I assumed it belonged to some noble. Do you give your familiars other animals to ride in Tristain, Valliere?"

"Human ones, yes. Unless you'd rather have him walk," Wardes interjected. "In any case, let us go. If we are to reach La Rochelle by sunset we should hurry. My dear and I will ride on the griffin, as usual, and you can follow her familiar on the ground."

"Actually, I have a better idea," Louise piped up.

"Hm? Whatever do you mean?"

"Just a moment. I want to speak to my familiar about something… darling." Louise tacked on the affectionate word onto the end, and it seemed to do the trick, as Wardes smiled and nodded.

Without a word, Louise grabbed onto Shinji's sleeve and dragged him away from the group. For once the boy didn't protest. When they were in the forest and far enough away to hide their voices, Shinji shook off the small girl's hand.

"Okay, what's this about?" he said.

Louise glared at him. She said, "just how much trouble are you in with the Einzberns? Tell me honestly."

"I don't see any reason to," the boy said. "You already know I was almost killed by one of them. Isn't it enough to know that bad blood exists between us?"

"No, it's not," insisted Louise. They glared at each other for a few more moments before she relented. Louise sighed, and leaned back against a tree trunk, crossing her arms. When she spoke again, her voice was softer somehow.

"Look, you're my familiar. Yeah, I think you're a horrible person, and yes, I know how much you hate me. But for now we're stuck together. In the past few days I've learned a few things about you."

"Like?" Shinji snorted. "Gimme a break, you don't know jack."

"You're a coward," she said, and Shinji stiffened. "You yell in your sleep a lot. Stuff about Servants, and Heroes, and Magi. I don't even understand the half of it, but anyone with a brain would've notice how afraid you sounded."

"And?" Shinji was angry now, his fists clenched and lips tight. "What I'm afraid of is none of your goddamn business."

"It is!" Suddenly, his Master was there, pushing him against a tree trunk. The girls' frail hands had almost no force behind them, but the boy couldn't bring himself to push her away. "That's what I've been saying this entire time! If I can't not hate you, then I'll at least put up with you, so meet me halfway here! You're a Noble, aren't you!? If you are, then stop being so… so irritating! Don't make me force you!"

For a few moments, all that could be heard was Louise's hard breaths as she recovered from her outburst. Shinji was the first to break the silence.

"Can you cast one of those silencing spells?"

"…no. But Wardes is there. He'd warn us if something was happening."

Shinji nodded, and began to speak. "They're from my world, the Einzberns. You've probably already figured it out, and yeah, you're right. Congrats, simple logic isn't beyond you."

"Familiar…"

"I was getting to it." Shinji frowned. "In my world, they're pretty much the same as they are here, from what I've heard. Kinda reclusive, a bit weird, that kinda stuff. Point is, my family and theirs have been disagreeing for a few hundred years, kinda like you and that hot redhead. And while I'd love to go up to that idiot back there and punch him in the face, I don't exactly have a multidimensional family of freaks backing me up like he does. So for now, the last thing I want is to make enemies of those guys. I'd much rather they stay in the dark about my existence. Is that enough of an explanation for you? Are you happy you finally got some leverage?"

"Yes," Louise said. "Now be quiet and let me speak."

They walked back to the camp, Shinji sullen and Louise oddly determined. Wardes and Gerecht hadn't moved, the former staring at the latter without blinking.

"I would like to ride," Louise said.

Wardes blinked. "What?"

"I'm taking the horse. I'd like you to let my familiar ride with you to La Rochelle."

The older man frowned. "My dear, that's most… unusual. Where did this sudden urge of yours come from?"

"I like riding horses, and enjoyed it greatly in the past," Louise said, her voice not so much as quavering under the lie. "My frail nature is troubled by the idea of this great mission, and I'd like the opportunity to relax by indulging in one of my favoured past times."

Wardes didn't look like he'd bought it, but Gerecht was already nodding. "It is understandable, milady," he said with an overdramatic flourish. "Why, just this morning a wonderful blonde fellow studying at your academy was telling me about how even the hardiest of roses cannot endure a headwind for days on end. I admire your foresight and ability to handle such a matter."

"Er… yes, exactly," Louise tried not to burst out laughing. She looked at Wardes again and summoned up her best pleading face. It was rusty from a severe lack of use, but it seemed to get the job done.

"Very well. I suppose I can understand your wish, my dear," Wardes shrugged. "And since Mister Einzbern is with you, I can rest easy. Come, familiar. We're heading off now."

Shinji nodded, uncharacteristically silent, and moved to follow Louise's fiancé as the man approached his griffin. As he passed by Louise, she whispered to him, "You're welcome."

Within moments, her familiar and fiancé had boarded the griffin and sailed off into the sky. Louise and Gerecht easily mounted their own horses with none of the swearing that had accompanied Shinji's attempt, and set off along the trail. They traveled silently for a few minutes before Gerecht spoke up.

"So…" he began. "You mentioned being stressed, and I think some nice tea while on the road might be just what you need to relax. How about it, milady?"

Louise suppressed a groan.

* * *

"I really don't understand that girl," Wardes said. They flew through the air at speeds normally requiring some form of protection, but only the gentlest of breezes got through the older mage's shield. Other than the rhythmic rise and fall of the griffin's body, it was a most relaxing flight. For Shinji, though, it was even worse than the saddle of the damned horse. "She dotes on you far too much, yet your attitude is horrible."

"Of course," Shinji replied, unwilling to hide the bitterness in his voice. "It's because she knows how horrible that is. I don't need her charity, so she offers it and makes me take it just to spite me."

"A bold move, tactically. If that's true, she's already becoming a fine Noble," Wardes said. The man looked forward, but the breeze carried his voice perfectly, and Shinji's response was equally audible. "As for you… shouldn't you be more reserved about voicing your displeasure in front of your Mistress' fiancé?"

Shinji barked out a short laugh. "I would be if you cared. But you don't really love her, so why should it matter?"

Wardes took a minute to formulate his reply. When he spoke, his voice was colder than ice.

"You know… it's a long way down, boy. If you were to fall, there would be nothing that could save you other than my intervention."

Suddenly, despite the muted roar of the wind, all seemed silent.

Wardes continued, "and no one would blame me if you just so happened to go crazy, forcing me to throw you off to save my own life. It would be a tragedy, but you are only a familiar claiming to be a Noble, so none would mourn your death."

Shinji said nothing. Four beats of the griffin's wings passed before Wardes started talking again.

"I'll admit that your insight is somewhat correct. Just like the marriage of Princess Henrietta and that Einzbern whelp, there is more behind our betrothal. It's expected. We were engaged more than a decade ago, and such a thing was decided upon by our families. But do not take that to mean that I feel nothing for Louise."

"Do you?" Shinji asked. "I've seen you two. You're overdoing the cutesy couple act. She might realize it if you keep putting the pressure on her. Even a well made lie will start to fall apart if it's stressed too often."

"Are you lecturing me, boy? I, who has years more experience than you?"

"Not lecturing. Just making an observation. Unlike some people, I know when to quit."

Wardes' smile went unseen. "Not how to quit it with that talk of yours, apparently. Do you always insult those who hold your life in their hands?"

Shinji decided that silence would be the best option.

"It's a shame, really. From what I can see you have potential. Were it not for your pettiness and illogical choices, you would remind me of myself when I was at your age."

"Thanks for the compliment."

"It isn't praise." Wardes said. "I was a fool, then. Young, rash, full of vague ambitions with no actual goals in sight. Ten years ago, when I strode into the capital with nothing to my name but my sword, my family's reputation, and a letter of recommendation, what do you think happened to me?"

No reply. Wardes continued without missing a beat.

"I was almost destroyed. No, I almost destroyed myself. At every turn, I brushed with death. Not honourable death, such as that a knight would earn while dying for a king. No, I almost went the way of the commoner. Stabbed to death by a nobody seeking to rob me. Betrayed by a petty weakness. Quietly stabbed in the night and wiped off the face of the earth for offending some obese official's pride. All because I insisted on challenging every barrier standing in my way without sparing a single thought for the consequences."

"Thrown off of a griffin for trying to blackmail the rider in the middle of a flight. I can think of few ways to die more embarrassing than that. Tell me, Shinji Matou. Why should you live?"

The griffin flew higher, responding to an unseen signal. They rose, past several layers of clouds that left Shinji soaked from head to toe and Wardes without a single ruffled feather in his hat. The boy dared a glance down and saw only clouds. His ears and head ached, and he knew without a doubt that it was only Wardes' magic keeping him from feeling the altitude.

His first attempt at responding was a croak, barely audible. He cleared his throat and the second was clearer.

"You can use me!"

Wardes' smile went unseen. "What was that?" he asked.

Shinji gritted his teeth, swallowed his pride, and spoke again. "You can use me, you bastard! I'll work for you! You may be her fiancé, but I'm her familiar! You saw how she pushed me to fly with you. That stupid girl's got a soft spot for me, for whatever reason. I can learn things you can't. You want to control that failure, don't you? I'll be your eyes and ears! Your weapon!"

"A weapon?" Wardes laughed, and a hint of insanity crept into his voice. "You're nothing more than a tool, familiar. You were summoned to be a tool, and now you're fulfilling your purpose, nothing more, nothing less. The only difference is where your true loyalties lie."

"Y-yeah! Whatever you say!" Shinji's teeth started chattering from the sub-zero temperatures creeping into his bones. "Just get me down!"

"Good," the older man's reply was soft, almost inaudible. "We have arrived, my tool. Welcome to La Rochelle. Don't expect to stay longer than a night."

Beneath them, a rather plain city came into view. It would be where they spent the night before departing the next morning for Albion. Shinji knew nothing of the town, their destination, or the unusual ships that seemed to be anchored at the waterless port. If he did, perhaps he would have been looking, and noticed it. But Shinji didn't see. He stared at La Rochelle, but only a small part of his mind acknowledged that they would be landing. The rest of him sat fuming silently, unable to do a damn thing about what could be counted as possible the worst day of his life.

Above La Rochelle, far in the distance, far enough to be a speck of dust or trick of the light, another city made itself visible. But it was more than just a city. A land mass, a flying continent, floating through the skies on an invisible current, the airborne country of Albion edged closer.

* * *

"Ah!"

With a sickening sound, metal withdrew from flesh. Delicate hands immediately clamped down on the wood, trying in vain to staunch the flow of blood. In seconds the scent permeated the air, settling on the fallen woman's clothes, yet repelled from those of the man who had stabbed her.

He raised his blood stained wand, idly examined it, and removed a handkerchief from his pocket.

The woman groaned, but the pain only momentarily halted her. With shaking hands she dug into the soft ground, pulling out clumps of dirt and packing them into the hole in her side. Within moments the red earth had covered her wound. She placed a hand over it and choked out a wordless spell.

The man with his face covered by a white mask watched impassively while wiping the blood from his wand with the once pure cloth in his hand. "The wound isn't fatal," he said. "I missed your organs on purpose. You might die from disease if you do that, though."

"I won't," the woman coughed. She lifted her hands, revealing packed clay where flesh had once been. "Sterilizing the materials is something even a Line mage learns."

"At what level do you learn basic transmutation?" he asked. "The walls of Tristain Academy aren't enchanted so strongly as to be able to repel a mage of your calibre, Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt."

"That's not my name," Fouquet growled as she pushed her body up. The now clean wand was immediately at her throat, threatening a quick death. She met the eyes of the man in the mask again and nodded. Instead of trying to stand, she settled for leaning against a tree. "And you know nothing. Certain parts are enchanted more strongly. Mainly the treasure vaults."

The man nodded. "Should I call you Matilda of Saxe-Gotha instead?"

Her already pale face still had enough life left in it to show surprise. "How?"

"I have my ways," the masked man replied. "Just as you have your ways. Tell me, why did you attack that girl's familiar? According to my sources you've been marking the Academy for weeks. Leaving it suddenly for another target does not fit your history."

"Too much risk," she muttered, looking away. "If I couldn't break in normally, there was no way I'd be doing it while having to deal with Royal Guards. Not even the Princess is worth that much trouble. Much easier to go for isolated targets."

"So you didn't expect said target to be accompanied by an equally powerful protector. Short-sighted as always. As expected of a common thief. You can't even look past your next meal."

"Kill me, please," Matilda grunted. "If it means having to listen to you insult me, I'd rather you just end it instead of prolonging the inevitable."

"Whether I kill you or not depends on your answer."

"…answer?"

The masked man nodded. "I care little for your petty ambitions, but our organization is always looking for new recruits. You are an ex-Noble capable of using magic, specializing in breaking into armed fortresses. That is not a useless set of talents."

Fouquet frowned and brushed a hand through her forest green hair. It was no longer shaking. "Who do you work for? I'm willing to join forces with you, but you'll have to give me an explanation first."

"No," the man said. "You cannot be trusted at the moment. Instead, I'll give you a promise. Finish one request for me, and I'll help you acquire whatever it is you need from the Academy's vaults. On top of that, I'll explain the purpose of the organization I work for and extend to you another invitation to join, along with a monetary reward."

"And if I refuse said invitation, or decide to take my chances and run away?"

The man's voice was flat. "I'll find you, and I'll kill you. On the off chance you manage to put up a decent fight the second time, you'll have my organization after you in addition to the law. There will be nowhere for you to run."

Matilda chuckled, and it was the laugh of a woman who knew only false choices. "Fine." She slowly and painfully stood, leaning against the tree, and this time the man let her. "But at least give me the name of this organization of yours. Oh, and I'm warning you now, there are some things even I won't do."

"It won't be a problem," the man said. "I merely need you to rid the very people you attempted to rob of an annoying pest. He should give you little trouble as long as you don't try to attack him in person. Here, for the trouble." He tossed her a sack of coins and she caught it with a wince.

The man turned away, his cloak fluttering in wind that hadn't been there a moment earlier. "As for a name… we call ourselves Reconquista."

A burst of wind forced Fouquet to blink, and when she opened her eyes the man was gone. The money in her hand, though, was still solid. She looked at the bag and back to the spot the man had vanished from, and shook her head. "Men," she sighed. "Always trying to make a dramatic exit."


End file.
